Camila Mandillo and Ava Bahari ECHO Rising Stars 2026/27
Soprano Camila Mandillo and violinist Ava Bahari, both graduates of the Eisler, have been accepted by the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) into the prestigious ‘Rising Stars’ programme for the 2026/27 season.
Camila Mandillo, 28 years old, comes from Portugal and studied singing at the Eisler from 2015 to 2022 with KS Prof. Uta Priew and Prof. Martin Bruns. She is currently Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where she is taught by Sophie Koch and Stéphane Degout. She has taken part in masterclasses with renowned teachers such as Sabine Devieilhe and José van Dam. As a vocal soloist, she performs throughout Europe in recitals and opera productions. She is also active in the field of contemporary music, has participated in world premieres and worked with composers such as Kaija Saariaho and Luca Francesconi. Engagements have taken her to the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble, the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, the Gulbenkian Orchestra and the Orchestre National de Lille, among others.
Ava Bahari, also 28 years old, was born in Sweden and completed her bachelor's and master's degrees at the Eisler as well as her concert exam with Prof Kolja Blacher. She has won several international competitions, including Premio Paganini (Genoa, 2021), Concours International Tibor Varga (Sion, 2021) and Aurora Music Competition (Stockholm, 2019). In the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons, she will be Artist in Residence with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with numerous renowned orchestras, including the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. As a chamber musician, she has performed at international festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and the Santander Music Festival.
The ECHO is an association of 23 renowned concert halls in 14 European countries. These include institutions such as the Elbphilharmonie, the Musikverein Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Palau de la Musica Barcelona. The ECHO Rising Stars programme enables selected young musicians to present themselves to a Europe-wide audience.
Over the course of the 2026/27 season, the selected artists will perform in the concert halls of the ECHO member institutions. The programme also includes the awarding of a composition commission, participation in workshops and educational and mediation projects. Since the programme was launched in 1995, over 150 musicians have been supported, including Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Janine Jansen, Igor Levit and Kian Soltani. The 2026/27 Rising Stars were selected at this year's artistic meeting of ECHO members from 26 to 28 March 2025 in Lisbon, hosted by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.