About
Biography
Born in 1944 in Lisbon, 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 fifteen years and Deutsche Grammophon for twenty years.
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. Maria João Pires regularly offers interdisciplinary workshops for professional musicians and music lovers. In the Belgais concert hall concerts and recordings regularly take place. In future these will be shared with the international digital community (pay and non-pay).
In 2012, in Belgium, she initiated two complementary projects; the Partitura Choirs, a project which creates and develops choirs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds as in Belgium the „Hesperos Choir, and the Partitura Workshops. All of the Partitura projects have the aim to create an altruistic dynamic between artists of different generations by proposing an alternative in a world too often focused on competitiveness. This philosophy is being spread worldwide at Partitura projects and workshops.
Projects
Belgais Center For Arts
We go to Belgais with some expectations, but we find, generally, something else and especially much more than we were looking for. The vast house reveals the beauty of its traditional architecture, offering an ideal place for the realisation of multiple artistic and cultural projects.
Workshops
Maria João’s workshops are a way of performing an in-depth musical work but also to invite a meditation on the relationship that each one has with their habits, culture, technique and expectations. Such an approach is inseparable from a reflection, both fruitful and necessary for the role of the today's artist.
Days of Wisdom
Started and directed by Maria João Pires, the first edition of this 3 day festival took place in August 2019 in Cervià de Ter, a town located in the province of Girona. The old and splendid monastery hosted this event offering concerts as well as artistic forms based on the dialogue between music, literature, theater and dance.