Arturo Portugal is a classically trained percussionist. Born and raised in Peru, he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in percussion at the renowned Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) in São Paulo in 2012. Following this, he was employed as a percussionist with timpani obligations at the Orquestra Experimental de Repertório in São Paulo. During his bachelor’s studies, he developed a passion for contemporary percussion literature, which ultimately led him to Germany due to his interest in New Music. Here, he obtained a Master’s degree in Solo Percussion (2016) under Professors Carlos Tarcha, Falko Oesterle, and Peter Hänsch at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz (HfMT) in Cologne, as well as completing the program in the Interpretation of New Music (2019) under Prof. David Smeyers.
Throughout his master’s studies and beyond, he was a permanent member of the Ensemble 20/21 and the Studio Musikfabrik Ensemble. Additionally, he has regularly collaborated with renowned ensembles and conductors, including Ensemble Musikfabrik, hand werk, the European Workshop for Contemporary Music, as well as Pablo Heras-Casado, François-Xavier Roth, and Enno Poppe. His musical activities within significant festivals for New Music (such as Warsaw Autumn, Darmstadt Summer Courses) have taken him to various countries including Switzerland, Croatia, Poland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Thailand, the Philippines, and the USA.
Since 2022, he has been a permanent member of the percussion trio ¡PSAVAS!. Furthermore, he participates in various music and children’s theater productions at the Comedia-Theater Köln, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Theater Oberhausen, as well as with the fringe ensemble Bonn. He regularly performs classical orchestral concerts with orchestras including the Philharmonic Orchestra Hagen, the Symphony Orchestra Aachen, the Gürzenich Orchestra, and the Bergische Symphoniker. Additionally, he works as a teacher at the Ludwig van Beethoven Music School in Bonn.
As an artist and educator, his musical versatility and curiosity, with a particular focus on classical orchestral performance and New Music, distinguish him.