From Portugal, Maria João Pires

Lisbon native Maria João Pires gave her first public performance at the age of 4 and began her studies of music and piano with Campos Coelho and Francine Benoît, continuing later in Germany, with Rosl Schmid and Karl Engel. In addition to her concerts, she has made recordings for Erato for 15 years and Deutsche Grammophon for 20 years.

Maria João Pires returns to the Symphony Center Presents Piano series after receiving the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from Northwestern University in 2023.

​Since the 1970s, she has devoted herself to reflecting the influence of art in life, community and education, trying to discover new ways of establishing this way of thinking in society. She has searched for new ways. which respecting the development of individuals and cultures, encourage the sharing of ideas.

In 1999, she created the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts in Portugal. At Belgais, Maria João Pires regularly offers interdisciplinary workshops for professional musicians and music lovers.

In 2012 in Belgium, she initiated two complementary projects; the Partitura Choirs, a project that creates and develops choirs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as in Belgium, the Hesperos Choir and the Partitura Workshops. All of the Partitura projects aim to create an altruistic dynamic between artists of different generations by proposing an alternative in a world too often focused on competition. This philosophy is being promoted worldwide at Partitura projects and workshops.

Maria João Pires will appear in an SCP Piano recital May 25.