
Luís Tasso Athayde Santos (1999–) is a Brazilian-Australian historical bassoonist, oboist, composer, and improviser based in the Netherlands.
Luís is comfortable performing all types of music. In early music, Luís performs on historical double reeds for all music from sixteenth century consort music to early twentieth century French music. Currently, he is the principal bassoonist of Florilegium Musicum, Theresia Orchestra, and De Barok Bende, as well as a second bassoonist with Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco (Opéra de Monte Carlo) and Apollo Ensemble. He is also a regular bassoonist with the Zemlinsky Chamber Orchestra and Camerata de’ Bardi van Nederland.
He has also played with ensembles such as Le Concert d’Anvers, B’Rock Orchestra, Collegium 1704, Collegium Vocale Gent Academy, and De Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht. He is a member of several chamber groups, including PuraCorda, Les Vents Alizés, and Echo Antiqua Amsterdam, with whom he toured an all-Monteverdi programme as part of the Utrecht Early Music Festival in February 2020.
While he mostly performs as a historical performer, he is also equally comfortable playing contemporary music, performing as a bassoonist with Meesters & Gezellen 2020, Studio MusikFabrik, and Tura New Music. As part of the Totally Huge New Music Festival 2017, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast multiple world premieres by the Breaking Out Ensemble, of which he was a part. In 2019, he also commissioned the first ever original contemporary compositions to for solo historical bassoon.
Luís is also the director of the Vera Consort, a flexible collective of musicians who perform all types of “Classical” music from the fifteenth to twenty-first centuries with a strong focus on research and performance practice.
For performance, he has won awards which include a grant from Stichting Eigen Muziekinstrument, a grant from Fondazione ICONS, the Royal Schools Music Club Anniversary Award, and the Royal Over-Seas League Arts Travel Scholarship which involved presenting multiple solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United Kingdom in 2018. For composition, he won the inaugural Bendat Family Foundation Composition Scholarship in 2018 for his work for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Dead hands, dead stringencies.. Most recently, he composed a work for solo E-flat clarinet, thin lines, for the Echo Chamber Secret Sequenzas 2021 project.
Luís currently studies historical bassoons and dulcians with Benny Aghassi, historical oboes and shawms with Amy Power, recorder with Peter van Heyghen, and instrument-making with Fritz Heller.
ENSEMBLES
Theresia Orchestra
principal bassoonist (2021–)
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Vera Consort
director (2021–)
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Camerata de' Bardi van Nederland
bassoonist (2021–)
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Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco
second bassoonist (2020–)
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PuraCorda
bassoonist (2020–)
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De Barok Bende
bassoonist (2020–)
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Florilegium Musicum
bassoonist (2021–)
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De Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht
bassoonist (2019–)
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Les Vents Alizés
bassoonist (2019–)
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Echo Antiqua Amsterdam
bassoonist (2019–), included concert series for Utrecht Early Music Festival in 2020
AWARDS
2021
Stichting Eigenmuziekinstrument Grant
Fondazione ICONS Educational Grant
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2018
Royal Schools Music Club Anniversary Scholarship
Royal Over-Seas League Travel Award
Bendat Family Foundation Composition Scholarship
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2017
Most Outstanding Senior Instrumentalist - North of Perth Music Festival
First Place - North of Perth Music Festival Open Instrumental Ensemble
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2016
Heng Chong Memorial Award - Trinity College, Perth
Catholic Arts Chapman Scholarship for Strings
Catholic Arts Therese Temby Award in Sacred Choral Composition
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2015
First Place - Fremantle Eisteddfod Open Composition
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2014
First & Second Place - Fremantle Eisteddfod Under 18 Composition
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2013
Most Outstanding Performance in Composition - John XXIII College, Perth
RECITALS
Luís's Baroque Bassoon Recital
24th August 2019
Christ Church Claremont, Perth WA
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Tot ziens! Luís & Ebony's Farewell Recital
28th August 2018
St George's College, Perth WA
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Mozart at Teatime - Edinburgh Festival
17 August 2018
The Royal Scots Club, Scotland
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Bach at Breakfast - Edinburgh Festival
15 August 2018
The Royal Scots Club, Scotland
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Friends of ROSL ARTS Garden Party
25th July 2018
Princess Alexandra Hall - Royal Over-Seas League House, London
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Composition Recital
28th November 2016
Trinity College, Perth WA