Pianist Maria João Pires was born in 1944 in Lisbon. She gave her first recital at the age of four and was nine when she won the Jeunesse Musicale Competition in Portugal; a series of additional prizes followed. In 1961 a scholarship enabled her to continue studies with Rosl Schmid and Karl Engel in Germany. Her international career was launched in 1970 when she won first prize at the Brussels Beethoven International Competition celebrating the composer’s 200th anniversary. Other career turning points include her debuts in London (1986) and New York (1989). In 1987 Claudio Abbado engaged her as soloist for the newly founded Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra’s first tour, and he was also conductor when Maria João Pires made her debut at the Salzburg Easter Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1990. She regularly gives concerts throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, and Israel, playing a repertoire focused on works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin. Chamber music is also a significant part of Maria João Pires’s artistic career; her partners include violinists Augustin Dumay and Viktoria Mullova, violist Yuri Bashmet, cellist Jian Wang, and oboist Douglas Boyd. In 1999 she founded Belgais, an intercultural center in Portugal located near the Spanish border which is devoted to the advanced training of artists from various disciplines. In 2005 she established the Impressões d’Arte, an experimental theater, dance, and music ensemble, with which she has pursued the projects Transmissions and Schubertiade. Her CDs have won many awards, including the Grand Prix du Disque; in 2012 she releases a new recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos K. 466 and 595 with the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 22 August 1976 in a matinee given in memory of Clara Haskil, playing works by Bach, Mozart, and Chopin.
March 2012