BIOGRAPHY

He began his piano studies at the age of eleven at the Conservatório de Artes do Orfeão de Leiria with Professor Luís Batalha. At nineteen, he left for Paris where he studied with Marian Rybicki and Guigla Katsarava and where he was a pupil and assistant to the pianist Jean Martin. While on a scholarship from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, he did his doctorate under the direction of philosopher and musicologist Danielle Cohen-Levinas. 

Although his repertoire covers all styles from Baroque onwards, João Costa Ferreira is specialized in music from the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. In his solo and chamber music projects, he is as interested in interpreting the great classical repertoire as in the discovery of forgotten composers and the commissioning of works to contemporary composers. He has performed in concert halls in Portugal, France, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands, including the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), the São Carlos National Theatre (Lisbon), the Casa da Música (Porto), the Rivoli Theatre (Porto), the Palais d’Iéna (Paris), the Salle Cortot (Paris) and the Gothic Hall of Brussels City Hall. Many of his concerts and recordings have been broadcast by Antena 2, France Musique and by other several European radio stations. 

João Costa Ferreira has been playing an active role in rehabilitating and valorisation of Portuguese musical heritage through the publication and recording the works by José Vianna da Motta. Since 2015, in collaboration with the publisher AvA Musical Editions, he has reviewed and prefaced more than thirty unpublished works and recorded most of them on the labels Grand Piano Records (Naxos label), MPMP Movimento Patrimonial Vivo and Coriolan / Inventive Art Music. The first volume of the José Vianna da Motta: Poemas pianísticos series received the Honorable Mention from the Grémio Literário. Together with pianist Bruno Belthoise, he recorded the entirety of the composer’s four-hand piano work. 

In addition to the various prizes he won in international piano competitions, including 2nd prize ex æquo in the XVth Maria Campina International Piano Competition (1st prize not awarded), João Costa Ferreira has been distinguished by various cultural institutions. In 2015, he was awarded with the prize “Best artistic revelation” by the Cap Magellan association; in 2019, he received the “Culture – Music Award” from INATEL Leiria; in 2024, he received the Municipal Merit Medal, Culture Class, awarded by the Leiria City Council.