French-Swiss musician Miguel da Silva was born in Reims and began studying at the Conservatory in his hometown, before moving to Paris where he studied at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, with Serge Collot. In Paris, he was awarded the 1st Prize in Chamber Music and Viola, unanimously and with a special vote from the jury.
In 1985, he won First Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Paris.
His passion for string quartets led him to found the Ysaÿe Quartet with three friends . After winning First Prize in Evian, the Ysaÿe Quartet began an international career all over the world, from Japan to America. This brilliant thirty-year career came to a close in January 2014 after a major series of concerts, with a special emphasis on Beethoven's music.
In recent years, various invitations have taken him to the Wigmore Hall in London and to most of the major concert halls in Europe - Munich / Herkulessaal, Venice / Teatro della Fenice, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Amsterdam / Concertgebouw, Hannover, Basel, Baden-Baden, Salzburg / Festspielhaus, Leipzig, and has toured in Belgium, the USA, Japan and Italy.
Miguel da Silva has played as a soloist with the Paris Chamber Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre d'Auvergne, the Franz-Liszt Orchestra of Budapest, the Brittany Orchestra, and the "Les Siècles" Orchestra.
As a very sought-after chamber musician, his partners have included Michel Portal, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Paul Meyer, Leonidas Kavakos, Pierre Amoyal, Augustin Dumay, Nikita Boriso-Glebksy, António Meneses, Jean-François Heisser, Truls Mork, Henri Demarquette, Gary Hoffman, Emmanuel Pahud, Christophe Coin, among others.
Alongside his CDs with the Ysaÿe Quartet, Miguel da Silva has recorded for the Accord, Valois-Auvidis, Philips and Harmonia Mundi labels. He also founded his own label, Ysaÿe Records, which, with the Nascor label, offers young musicians the chance to make their first recordings.
In 1994, he began teaching a string quartet class and has since guided a whole new generation of French and European quartets and chamber music groups.
In 2008, he was appointed Professor of Viola at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck, Germany.
Since 2009, he has been Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Haute École de Musique Genève (HEM) in Switzerland, and Artistic Director of the Académie Musicale Villecroze in France.
He was recently appointed Master in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, where he was invited to open the first Viola class.
Miguel da Silva plays a viola by Nicola Bergonzi, built in Cremona in 1796.