Marco Antonio de Almeida, Pianist

Before graduating with honours from Hamburg University of Music and Theatre, de Almeida took a degree in medicine in Brazil. He won prizes at several international competitions, including the Covilhã Piano Competition in Portugal (Gulbenkian Foundation Prize), the Viotti Competition in Italy and the International Gina Bachauer Competition in the USA. As a Mozart interpreter he was invited to perform at prominent German music festivals such as the Würzburg Mozartfest, the Bad Kissingen Summer, the Ruhr Piano Festival and the festivals in Schwetzingen and Schleswig-Holstein. In addition to radio, TV and studio recordings, de Almeida has given solo recitals in Eastern and Western Europe, Scandinavia and North and South America and concertised with leading orchestras under Moshe Atzmon, Heribert Beissel, Gustavo Dudamel, Michael Gielen, Michail Jurowski, Isaak Karabchevsky and John Neschling. He has also played chamber music with Antonio Menezes, Tom Krause, the Auryn Quartet and the Moscow Wind Quintet. He is currently a professor of piano at Hamburg University of Music and Theatre and the University of Halle-Wittenberg, a member of the German Society of Medicine and Performing Arts, and artistic director of one of South America’s leading international music festivals, the Londrina Festival in Paraná, Brazil.

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