Born in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, he carried out his musical studies in the
Conservatoires of Braga and Porto, where he graduated in 1982 with distinction. He
then attended the concert class of Noel Flores at the Academy of Music and Dramatic
Arts of Vienna and later obtained the degrees of Master of Music in Performance
Studies and PhD in Performance from the British Universities of Reading and Leeds,
respectively.
As a pianist he premiered numerous works, his repertoire spanning from the baroque to
contemporary. He also composed pieces for piano and chamber music, including some
songs. He is regularly invited to give Master Classes and to serve as a juror of different
musical competitions in several countries.
He has recorded various CDs for different labels, including repertoire from Bach to the
twentieth century. Tracks form his CD ‘Portugal’ have been selected to feature in the
official musical selection of the Portuguese Airline Company TAP, including sonatas by
Carlos Seixas and ‘My Beautiful Blue Country’, his acclaimed introspective solo piano
version of the Portuguese National Anthem. A recent review in the Piano Journal
reputes this CD as “remarkable and original”, stating that Pipa’s Suite Portugal will
leave its mark on future Portuguese music anthologies, and also defining him as “a
pianist of great depth, power and poise”. His latest recordings include a double CD with
Mozart piano works (Tradisom, 2018) a CD with Vianna da Motta’s piano music
(Toccata Classics, 2018), a double CD with piano sonatinas by Clementi, Beethoven,
Dussek and Reinecke (Tradisom, 2019), and a CD with the first volume of piano music
by Phillip Scharwenka (Toccata Classics, 2020).
He is the current President of EPTA Portugal, and professor of piano and chamber
music at the University of Minho, Portugal.