Dinis Sousa is Music Director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia (RNS) and Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning Orquestra XXI.
Winner of the 2023 Critics’ Circle Young Talent (Conductor) Award, he has led RNS programmes with Víkingur Ólafsson, Stephen Hough, Benjamin Grosvenor, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Kristian Bezuidenhout, a Ravel anniversary celebration, Handel’s Messiah, and a special community performance of Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time.
In the 2025/26 season with the RNS, Sousa leads programmes with Paul Lewis, Imogen Cooper, Louise Alder and Maria Włoszczowska; Haydn’s Creation; a project juxtaposing Pierre Boulez and The Beatles; and a centenary celebration of György Kurtág.
As a guest conductor, recent and upcoming debuts include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He has earned acclaim for performances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and for a complete Beethoven cycle with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras.
His opera work includes Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande for Bergen Opera and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for Nevil Holt Opera. With Orquestra XXI, highlights include opening the Gulbenkian Foundation season and a celebrated tour of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.
