Information
BIO & PRESS
BIOGRAPHY
Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro is considered one of the most outstanding Portuguese artists of recent decades, and one of the most internationally renowned as a solo pianist, chamber musician and artistic director.
Born in Porto, where he began his studies, Filipe graduated and received his doctorate in 2000 from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he studied for five years under the guidance of the prestigious pianist and Professor Lyudmila Roschina. Since then, he has embarked on a career that has led him to perform at the best concert seasons and festivals in Europe, America, Asia and Oceania.
Called "a poet of the piano", Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro has mastered a vast repertoire and is a musical chameleon who feels as at home in the music of romanticism as he does in baroque and contemporary music, having premiered works by composers such as Bruce Adolphe, Eurico Carrapatoso, Luís Tinoco and Marcelo Nisinman. His piano recitals have particularly daring programs, and he is the only Portuguese pianist to perform the biggest piano cycle of the 20th century: the complete 24 Preludes and Fugues Opus 87 by Dmitri Shostakovich. His solo discography, consisting of 5 CDs, is an example of his versatility and includes works from Bach to Ravel, Beethoven to Mussorgsky, Debussy to Prokofiev, including Portuguese composers.
Passionate about chamber music, he has performed with many renowned musicians, such as José van Dam, Gary Hoffman, Gérard Caussé, Eldar Nebolsin, Benjamin Schmid, Janne Saksala, Renaud Capuçon, Adrian Brendel, Pascal Moraguès, Mihaela Martin, Christian Poltéra, Liza Ferschtman, Lars Anders Tomter, Pieter Wispelwey, Anna Samuil, Viviane Hagner, Frans Helmerson, Sergei Nakariakov, Michel Portal, and Radek Baborák, among others. In 1998, he formed a piano duo with Peruvian pianist Rosa Maria Barrantes, his wife, with whom he recorded a CD of works by French composers for piano four hands.
As concerto soloist, he has played with the main Portuguese orchestras, and those of various countries - Austria, Belgium, Spain, Cuba, Slovakia, Russia, Armenia, Hungary, etc - having collaborated with conductors such as John Nelson, Emilio Pomàrico, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Christoph Poppen, Dmitri Liss and Mikhail Agrest, among many others.
An important moment in his career was the creation, in 2006, of the DSCH Shostakovich Ensemble, of which he is artistic director. Over the last almost 20 years, Filipe has joined many of the most significant musicians of our time for concerts of the Ensemble on various continents. The DSCH Ensemble's discography includes the first world recording of Shostakovich's Complete Chamber Music for Piano and Strings, and Beethoven's Trios Opus 11 and 38 (both for Paraty/Harmonia Mundi), albums that have received outstanding reviews.
It was also from the DSCH Ensemble that he created Verão Clássico in Lisbon, in 2015, which is now regarded as one of the most important festivals and academies in the world.
His creativity as artistic director and curator has led him to lead various projects over the last two decades, and he is currently artistic director of the Capuchos Music Festival, the Bragança ClassicFest Festival and curator of the Musical-Mente Concert Cycle in Porto.
A supporter and promoter of new generations of musicians, Filipe was a Professor of Piano for a decade at Portuguese universities, often gives masterclasses and, in 2022, created the Juventus Ensemble, an intergenerational platform that promotes concerts and artistic residencies, bringing together renowned musicians with the best emerging young talents on the music scene.
Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro is the only Portuguese pianist nominated "Steinway Artist", an official distinction he received in 2014 from the German-American prestigious piano company Steinway & Sons.
PRESS
SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL, Laurence Vittes
June 21, 2024
“The beautiful Hungarian string sound of the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, with its characteristically intense vibrato, was superbly sculpted by Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro conducting without a baton – as you might expect from a piano virtuoso. Pärt’s two simple pieces were also the perfect introduction to J. S. Bach’s F minor Piano Concerto, in which the jewel was the Largo in F major. Played by a pianist steeped in the great Russian pianistic tradition, it was two minutes of sheer beauty. Pinto-Ribeiro applied ornaments sparingly but with telling lush elegance, and his magical rhapsodic line against the pizzicatos of the strings wound down to an almost imperceptible pianissimo. In the opening Allegro moderato, he had sung out with as much legato as the music could bear, while the energy that was unleashed in the concluding Presto drew enthusiastic applause from the crowd.”Mendelssohn’s Sextet Op.110 was transformed by Pinto-Ribeiro’s rare abilities: he led with virtuosity and a youthful surge of poetry in every phrase, and still immersed himself in the overall sound.”
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CLASSIQUE NEWS, Emmanuel Andrieu
December 29, 2023
“As is his good habit, Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro surrounded himself with soloists of great quality, with whom he often performs, resulting in perfect harmony between him, the German violinist Viviane Hagner and the Swiss cellist Christian Poltéra. After declaiming the beautiful opening theme, the pianist took care not to interrupt the noble progression of the musical discourse with heavily accented chords, instead carrying forward the dynamic of these harmonies while highlighting, with finesse and subtlety, the entrance of the other instruments.”
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SCHERZO MAGAZINE, Emmanuel Andrieu
November, 2022
“With the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro was the inspired soloist in Haydn’s Piano Concerto, in which he displayed equal measures of delicacy and solidity, virtuosity and joy.”
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CLASSICA MAGAZINE, Augustin Javel
May, 2021 *****
“We would have liked to welcome, during the Beethoven year, more albums like this one which so intelligently renew the discography. Between the emblematic version, albeit in a rather old style, signed by Peyer and Du Pré with Barenboim, few interpretations manage to fully restore the ardor and energy of these youthful pages. Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro sustains the melodic lines, notably with a left hand that is present but never heavy. Upon this vast and generous sonic tapestry, Adrian Brendel and Pascal Moraguès engage in a dialogue of perfect harmony.”
CRESCENDO MAGAZINE, Pierre Carrive
March 31, 2021
“An outstanding DSCH Shostakovich Ensemble in Beethoven’s Trios. Their reading of these two works is captivating, vibrant, and imbued with both finesse and sensitivity. Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro reveals a refined sense of rubato, his touch light and articulate yet never dry, shaping phrase endings with rare subtlety.”
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EXPRESSO, Ana Rocha
November 27, 2020 *****
"Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro was the protagonist of the opening concert, which featured Beethoven’s Sonata No. 23, Op. 57 (‘Appassionata’) and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition — works of great scope, demanding an interpreter admirable for his spiritual concentration, precision and suppleness.”