First Prize Winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1993 and Artistic Director of the Bahia Symphony Orchestra since January 2007, Ricardo Castro is in charge of the implantation of the world acclaimed Venezuelan system of youth orchestras in Bahia where he started in collaboration with FESNOJIV the program NEOJIBÁ (Núcleos Estaduais de Orquestras Juvenis e Infantis da Bahia). Born in Brazil, Ricardo Castro began to play the piano at 3 and began his musical studies with Esther Cardoso at the age of 5 when exceptionally accepted at the Music School of the Federal University of Bahia. He appeared for the first time in public three years later and played Haydn’s D Major Concerto at the age of 10. He moved to Europe in 1984 where he studied piano with Maria Tipo and Dominique Merlet and conducting with Arpad Gerecz at the Geneva Conservatory, obtaining the Virtuosity Diploma in 1987. Winning at Leeds launched Ricardo Castro on an international career, giving recitals in the world’s major concert halls and performing concertos with some of the world’s finest orchestras including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Academy of St.Martin-in-the-Fields, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Mozarteum of Salzburg, Suisse Romande and Tokyo Philharmonic. He has also worked with some of the world’s major conductors including Sir SimonRattle, Yakov Kreizberg, Leif Segerstam, Alexander Lazarev, Gilbert Varga, Markus Stenz, Kazimierz Kord and Libor Pesek.