Artur Pizarro

Born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1968, Artur Pizarro first played the piano on Portuguese television at the age of three. He had been introduced to the instrument by his maternal grandmother, pianist Berta da Nóbrega, and her piano-duo partner, Campos Coelho, who was a student of Vianna da Motta, Ricardo Viñes and Isidor Philipp. From 1974 to 1990 Artur studied with Sequeira Costa who had also been a student of Vianna da Motta, Mark Hamburg, Edwin Fischer, Marguerite Long and Jacques Février. This distinguished lineage immersed Artur in the tradition of the "Golden Age" of pianism and gave him a broad education in both the German and French piano schools and repertoire. After initial studies in Lisbon, Artur moved to Lawrence, Kansas in the USA and continued working with Sequeira Costa who is Professor of Piano at the University of Kansas.

Artur began performing publicly again at the age of 13 with a recital début at the Sao Luíz Theatre in Lisbon and made his concerto debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra later in the same year. While still under the tutelage of Costa, Artur won first prizes in the 1987 Vianna da Motta Competition, the 1988 Greater Palm Beach Symphony Competition and won first prize at the 1990 Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, which marked the beginning of an international concert career.

Artur Pizarro performs internationally in recital, chamber music and with the world's leading orchestras and conductors including Charles Dutoit, Sir Simon Rattle, Jean Fournier, Philippe Entremont, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Sir Andrew Davis, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yuri Termikanov, Vladimir Fedoseev, Ilan Volkov, Tugan Sokhiev, Yakov Kreizberg, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Libor Pešek, Vladimir Jurowski and Sir Charles Mackerras. Artur is an active chamber musician and has performed at chamber music festivals throughout the world. In 2005 he formed the ‘Artur Pizarro Piano Trio' with violinist Raphaël Oleg and cellist Josephine Knight. Artur also performs as a piano duo with Vita Panomariovaite. The duo released ‘Rimsky-Korsakov - Piano Duos' (Linn CKD 293) to great acclaim with BBC Online observing ...the two pianists respond with a unity that shimmers...

In February 2003 Artur Pizarro released ‘Beethoven Piano Sonatas' (Linn CKD 244) to outstanding critical acclaim: Let no one say there is no room for another set of established masterpieces when the pianist is possessed with this sort of recreative energy and exuberance (Gramophone Magazine). Throughout 2003-04 season Artur Pizarro performed the complete cycle of Beethoven Piano Sonatas at St John's, Smith Square in London. All eight concerts were broadcast on BBC Radio 3's ‘Performance on 3' and the cycle earned Artur a Royal Philharmonic Society Award Nomination for ‘Best Series'.

In 2005 Artur released ‘Reminiscences' (Linn CKD 248), a collection of Chopin's best loved works for solo piano and in 2006 Artur released ‘Chopin Piano Sonatas' for Linn Records (Linn CKD 250). The majestic Third Sonata can hardly be bettered and with the fine natural recorded sound we could very well have the Chopin release of the year (Pianist Magazine).

Throughout 2005-06 Artur dedicated himself to performing the complete solo works of Ravel and Debussy. All six concerts were broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and Artur has recorded ‘The Complete Piano Works of Maurice Ravel Vol. I and II' for Linn Records (Linn CKD 290 and Linn CKD 315).

Artur's international concert schedule includes recitals at Rudolfium in Prague, London's Wigmore Hall, the International Piano Series at the Royal Festival Hall and the Aldeburgh Festival, recitals in Denmark broadcast by the Danish Radio, the complete solo works of Ravel and Debussy performed in Lisbon and Denmark, recitals in Seville, a live television broadcast with the RTVE Orchestra in Madrid, concerts with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Grieg Concerto at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels broadcast live on Belgian radio, the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Jurowski, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Casa da Música in Porto, the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon and the Beethoven Fest in Bonn.