Francisco Cipriano [b.1998] attended the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, where he studied with Pedro Carneiro, Jeffrey David and Richard Buckley and where he obtained his degree. He is currently studying at the Hochschule fur Kunst Bern with Brian Archinal. In 2019, Francisco won a scholarship offered by the Hochschule fur Kunst Bern and was awarded a scholarship from the GDA Foundation. In 2020, he won a scholarship from the Hirschmann FoundaRon.
In 2017 he founded the Merak Trio – Percussion Trio – which focuses on contemporary music. He has played in the main Chamber Music festivals in Portugal, such as CisterMúsica, Percutir, Festival Jovens Músicos, among others.
He was awarded in some of the main competitions in Portugal, obtaining the 1st place in the International Competition of Lagos, the Grand Prix in the Competition of Madeira, the 2nd place in the Young Musicians Prize, medium and superior level, and in the International Competition of Percussion of Beira Interior, among others.
He had the opportunity to play solo with two orchestras: Orquestra Clássica da Beira Interior and Orquestra SIM (Luxembourg). He also had the opportunity to play with other orchestras such as Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, EUWYO (European Union Wind Youth Orchestra), Ensemble MPMP and several others. He has played in the main venues in Portugal such as the Main Auditorium of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Main Auditorium of the CCB, Casa Música do Porto, Culturgest, and the Thalia Theatre. Outside Portugal he has played in Luxembourg, Holland, Switzerland, Germany and Spain.