Mateus Colares de Souza

Brazilian oboist and cor anglais player based in London, Mateus is currently doing a Master’s degree in Performance at the Royal College of Music, having previously graduated from the RCM with a Bachelor of Music as a Herbert Howells & Thomas Fielden Scholar and a David Laing Scholar. He began his studies at the University of São Paulo before entering the third year at the RCM, studying with Olivier Stankiewicz, John Roberts, and Christine Pendrill.

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Mateus recently recorded Michael Fine’s Triple Concerto for Oboe Section with the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra at Henry Wood Hall. His solo career began in Brazil, where he won the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra Young Soloists Competition in 2019 and, in 2022, the "Orquestra Experimental de Repertório" Young Soloists Competition, later performing Lebrun’s Oboe Concerto No. 1 with the orchestra.​ In 2025, he won First Prize at the Grimaldi Cor Anglais Competition, performing his own arrangement for cor anglais and piano. 

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Before moving to the UK, he was Principal Oboe of the Guarulhos Symphony Orchestra and a guest musician with professional orchestras across Brazil. From 2023, he was a "Cultura Artística" scholar through the Magda Tagliaferro Scholarship, recording a solo recital at Monteverdi Studio in 2024.

For his Master's degree, Mateus is supported by the LSO Conservatoire Scholarship and an RCM Study Award.