Biography

Music began with his parents, a disciple of Helena Costa, Robert Weisz, and Harry Datyner, and masterclasses with Sequeira Costa, Moura Castro, Josef Palenicek, Jörg Demus, and Tânia Achot. Graduated from Conservatório de Música do Porto, he completed his musical studies at Université Laval (Canada) and Conservatoire de Musique de Genève (Prix de Virtuosité), where he has taught. Stepping on stage during more than five decades, he has made his debut with fourteen with Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto, under Silva Pereira, followed by many other conductors: Arpad Gerezs, Gunther Arglebe, graça Moura, Álvaro Salazar, Kamen Goleminov, Fernando Eldoro, Marc Tardue, Ferreira Lobo, Philippo Zigante, Cesário Costa, António Lourenço, Pearce de Azevedo, Rui Pinheiro, and Pedro Neves.

He is a frequent guest of the most important Portuguese musical festivals, played in Switzerland, Canada, Spain, France, Luxemburg, Brasil, and Italy, and recorded by RTP, RDP, and TV Cultura (Brasil). His repertoire covers all the epochs and gives special attention to Portuguese Music, having premiered compositions by Eduardo Patriarca, Amílcar Vasques Dias, Cândido Lima, and Lopes-Graça. He has collaborated with the cellist Gisela Neves (CD “Alla Danza”), the pianist Álvaro Teixeira Lopes and, in a piano and percussion quartet, the pianist Pedro Burmester and the percussionists Miquel Bernat and Manuel Campos, apart from many others soloists. Laureated in several national and international competitions he is often invited to juris or masterclasses in Portugal and abroad. His activity as a professor in Portugal (Conservatório do Porto, Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo, Academia e Escola Profissional de Música de Espinho e Universidade de Aveiro) has formed several merit pianists and teachers. He worked in the Porto 2001, European Culture Capital, has created the Educational Musical Service of Casa da Música. Dirige o Coro “Amigos da Música” de Espinho. He is the Musical Conductor of the choir “Amigos da Música” de Espinho.

To João de Freitas Branco, he is a very serious performer, with a fine interiority, and with sense of style