Valente José

José Valente is considered amongst the most promising accordionists of his generation. He began his musical studies at the age of 10, under the guidance of Professor Paulo Jorge Ferreira, at the Conservatório Municipal D. Dinis, Odivelas. At 18, he was admitted at Escola Superior de Artes Aplicadas do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco, where he completed his Master in Music, in Accordion Specialization, in March 2013, under the guidance of teachers Paulo Jorge Ferreira and Maria Luísa Correia Castilho. In 2015, he was admitted at Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he completed his Advanced Postgraduate Diploma – soloist, in April 2018, under the guidance of the norwegian accordionist Geir Draugsvoll.

José won several 1st prizes at national and international competitions, such as Concurso de Acordeão de Castelo Branco – Folefest (Portugal), Concurso de Jovens Intérpretes de Caldas da Rainha (Portugal), Prémio Jovens Músicos (Portugal), Concurso de Interpretação do Estoril | Prémio El Corte Inglés (Portugal), PIF - Castelfidardo International Accordion Prize (Italy), among others. Also in competition PJM, he got the European Union of Music Competitions for Youth prize (EMCY).

He has performed with Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Orquestra de Câmara de Cascais e Oeiras, Orquestra Clássica da Madeira, Orquestra Gulbenkian, Orquestra Sinfónica Metropolitana, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música and Remix Ensemble Casa da Música, under the baton of the great conductors Cesário Costa, Daniele Giulio Moles, Misha Rachlevsky, Nikolay Lalov, Pedro Carneiro, Peter Rundel and Olari Elts. He attended master classes led by renowned accordionists, including Claudio Jacomucci, Friedrich Lips, Geir Draugsvoll, Matti Rantanen, Mie Miki, Mika Väyrynen, Paulo Jorge Ferreira, Raimondas Sviackevičius, Veli Kujala, Vojin Vasovic and Yuri Shishkin. He has performed concerts abroad, particularly in Belgium, China, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Spain and USA. He has perfomed in international music festivals, such as Marvão International Music Festival (Marvão, Portugal), Dias da Música (Lisbon, Portugal), Akordeono Festivalis Vilnius (Vilnius, Lithuania), PIF Castelfidardo (Castelfidardo, Italy), Vinterjazz (Copenhagen, Denmark), Pulsar (Copenhagen, Denmark), among others. He has also been invited as jury at the International Accordion Week Alcobaça (Portugal) and Premio Internazionale della Fisarmonica di Castelfidardo (Italy).