“(…) had the serene and musical direction of Rui Massena”
Alexandre Delgado in Jornal Público

“The night before last I encountered Wim Mertens again at the Vila Flor Cultural Centre in Guimarães. Mertens, a pianist of excellence, 63 but not a day older, offered the assembled audience a memorable performance, accompanied by the Fundação Orquestra Estúdio, masterfully conducted by the always exuberantly elegant Rui Massena (…) The art of an experienced pianist, allied to the wisdom of an experienced maestro, played by a young orchestra, equaled a remarkable show!”
Paulo Ferreira in Jornal Notícias

“Both Leonard Bernstein’s thrilling Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and George Gershwin’s Caribbean-tinged Cuban Overture, a program closer that received many requests for an encore, were accompanied by finger-snapping, jazz elements and intercut rhythms. The whole was staged with energy and power by the temperamental and enthusiastic Portuguese maestro Rui Massena. The young audience rewarded them with many standing ovations.”
Kleine Zeitung, Klagnfurt, Austria

“The big attraction of this concert was the young Portuguese conductor who not only shone himself but also motivated his orchestra to perform a nicely judged rendering of Beethoven’s first symphony. Massena found the right balance between strings and winds. The sound was brilliant, clear, and always contagiously moving, and the audience applauded for a long time the young Portuguese conductor.”
Alejandro Fernandez in El Norte Monterrey, Mexico

“(…) it was the conductor Rui Massena who transformed the orchestra in a playful and joyful ensemble… The courage and rhythmic accuracy excelled. The “Cuban Overture” by Gershwin was memorable!”
Fetztige Rhythmen  

“(…) Rui Massena directed the grand set with the “concertino” Vito Imperato with a light pulse and a great dynamic… An orchestral group with vast concentration, directed by the obeisant Rui Massena who obtained a wanted and balanced sound.”
Aldo Matina in Giornale di Sicília – Cronaca di Catania

“The young conductor, possessor of a charismatic sympathy, proved to be one of the greatest promises of the Portuguese music scene.”
Rui Pereira in Público

“Rui Massena” proved himself confident and musical, airily avoiding the transparent problems of the orchestral textures, conducting with real energy the final number with its impressive accelerando.”
Virgílio Melo in Jornal Público

“It’s very unusual to watch an orchestra conductor, conducting stick in hand and in rigorous tails, refuse all protocols of classical music and raise his arms for the public as a rapper pronounces his irreverent verses. It’s even more unusual that he will not shake hands with the performers but perform a high five. But that’s the thing about daring to put on a symphonic hip-hop concert: it generates unseen possibilities, creates a unique sound experiment, diluting all genre borders and showing that music can be anything that makes you move, can be anything that goes further than your wildest dreams (…) The brain behind Sinfonic Goes Da Weasel is Rui Massena, a 33-year old conductor that had already dared to bring together pop and classical. But he wanted to go even further, take an adventure into other styles whose apparent contrast seemed to give him more limitations. (…) There was a promise of intensity in this evening, but what was transmitted was so transgressive and enveloping that nobody went home disappointed; except probably by the lack of an encore and for being unable to immortalize this vibrant, expansive atmosphere.”
Sonia Domínguez in El Mundo – “Cultura”