Iria Folgado studied in Berlin with Dominik Wollenweber at the HfM Hanns Eisler, was an academician of the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic and a scholarship holder of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She has played in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. As a chamber musician, Iria has performed at festivals in Zermatt and Moritzburg and at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, among others.

Before a concert, I always like to take a little siesta so that I am rested. Afterwards, I like to have a coffee so that I am awake and motivated.

Since I started playing the oboe at the age of nine, I always wanted to do something with music. Today I couldn't imagine any other profession, I think.

What I like most is sitting in the middle of the orchestra as a woodwind player and feeling all the sound that surrounds me from my colleagues. Both from the strings sitting in front of me and from the brass and percussion players, who create a whole wave of sound. And in this way to experience how we musicians become one.

If I didn't play oboe and cor anglais, horn would be my instrument. It has many colours, I find, and can be very musical - apart from the important role it plays in the orchestra!