BIOGRAPHY

He began his piano studies at the age of six at the Gaia Regional Conservatory and showed a great talent for music from an early age. However, during his career, it wasn’t always clear that he was going to be a pianist, until at the age of 13, after his first in-depth contact with the music of W.A. Mozart, where he felt he had something important to say. It was then that he moved to the class of Professor Rui Pintão and decided that his profession was gonna be what it is today.

During those three years, he took part in various national competitions where he achieved all kinds of results, from honorable mention to first prize. At one of the competitions, he met Moldovan teacher Serghei Covalenco, with whom he had been working privately several times.

At the age of 17, he met Professor Miguel Borges Coelho, with whom he studied for four years at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo in Porto. In addition to his piano lessons, several important activities in his development are worth highlighting, such as his two-year engagement as a choir member at CLUP – a local choir in Porto consisting mostly of amateur musicians – working closely under the guidance of the conductor José Luís Borges Coelho; various chamber music activities with Professor Ryszard Woycicki; and the musical analysis lessons with Professor Miguel Ribeiro Pereira.

After completing his studies in Porto, Pedro moved to Switzerland to study with the prestigious professor Claudio Martínez-Mehner at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel. He was as well accepted into Professor Anton Kernjak’s chamber music class and works with both of them in a long and in-depth process over six years. In 2020 he was awarded the Kiefer Hablitzel Göhner Musikpreis in Bern (pre-lockdown) and also the Ageas New Talents Award in Porto (post-lockdown), and since then he has performed regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in Portugal and Europe, appearing at venues such as the Theatro Circo, Casa da Música, Palau de la Música Catalana, the Muziekgebouw, and at various international classical music festivals.

During the summers of 2018 and 2019, Pedro was invited to participate in the chamber music festival “Yellow Barn” in USA, performing a series of 7 concerts each edition. His performances where described by the artistic director Seth Knopp as “memorable”. He was also part of the teaching faculty of the “Young Artists Program” in 2019, where he coached high-talented young musicians in several chamber music groups.

He has appeared on stage with important musical personalities, including violinist Anthony Marwood in quartet, pianist Pedro Burmester in four hands, as well as cellist John Myerscough, with whom he collaborated closely with Australian composer Brett Dean.

In 2021, he was accepted at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin to study in the class of the highly renowned pianist Kirill Gerstein, with whom he studied for two years. In September 2022, he won an award from the Steinway Berlin after a successful concert at the piano house in the German capital.

Alongside his work as a concert pianist, Pedro is a piano teacher at the Musikschule Riehen in Basel, where he lives since 2016.