Diogo Costa

Conductor Diogo Costa (b. 1989) has built a career spanning both the symphonic and operatic repertoire, collaborating with leading orchestras in Portugal and abroad, including the Hallé Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Porto Symphony Orchestra Casa da Música, Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, the regional orchestras of Northern Portugal, Beiras and Algarve, and the Orquestra Clássica do Centro.

With a particular passion for opera, he has worked as assistant conductor to Lorenzo Viotti on Gounod's Roméo et Juliette with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and Chorus, and to David Azagra on Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore as part of the Ópera Joven project in Spain. In 2021, he made his debut as principal conductor in opera with Menotti's The Medium at Operafest Lisboa, a production that received widespread international critical acclaim. In 2025, he conducted Samuel Barber's Vanessa for Ópera do Castelo, further establishing his presence in the operatic repertoire.

Alongside his operatic work, he appears regularly as a guest conductor with major orchestras and has recorded with the West European Studio Orchestra, including sessions at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London. He has also collaborated with renowned jazz musicians including Benny Golson, Perico Sambeat, John Ellis, China Moses, Isabella Lundgren and the Belmondo Quintet.

A laureate of the Young Musicians Prize in Conducting, Diogo Costa was also a finalist in the Mackerras Fellowship of the English National Opera and a semi-finalist in the Siemens Hallé International Conducting Competition. He studied conducting at the National Academy of Orchestra – Metropolitana and completed a postgraduate degree with distinction at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.