Ricardo Castro is a pianist and conductor with a huge career who studied with Maria Tipo at the Conservatory of Music in Geneva. He teaches at the Fribourg Conservatory, "HEMU - Haute Ecole de Musique Vaud-Valais-Fribourg" in Switzerland. His career began with a 1987 ex-aequo win at the International Competition of the ARD in Munich. Castro is the founder of NEOJIBA (State Centers of Youth and Children's Orchestras of Bahia), a pioneering program in Brazil and project inspired by El Sistema in Venezuela. Castro was Invited by the Government of the State of Bahia, to create The Youth Orchestra of Bahia (YOBA), of which he is the founder, principal conductor and artistic director. The YOBA Orchestra gives yearly around 30 concerts in the USA and Europe. In 2013 he was the first Brazilian to receive the Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society London.