Maria João Pires

After more than 50 years of career and 80 years of life, Maria João Pires takes to the stage in the city of Braga for the first time. Considered one of the most virtuoso pianists of all time, she started playing the piano on her own at the age of three, a year before her first public performance. Her international career began in the 1980s, when she made her debut in recitals in London – at the Queen Elizabeth Hall – and in New York, at the incomparable Carnegie Hall. 

Her sublime interpretations of Schubert, Mozart and Chopin are universally admired, both solo and with orchestra – a list that includes the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the Vienna Philharmonic. She has won prestigious awards such as the Gramophone Prize and the Caecilia Prize, and has received decorations such as the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator and the French Legion of Honor. 

In addition to her concerts, she made recordings for Erato for fifteen years and for Deutsche Grammophon, one of the most renowned classical music publishers, for twenty-five, adding up to more than 40 editions, many of them internationally acclaimed.