Maria João Pires
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Maria João Pires (Lisbon, July 23rd 1944) is a renowned pianist from Portugal, currently living in Brazil.
Her first recital was at age five, and at age seven, she was already playing Mozart concerts publicly. Two years later, she received Portugal's top prize for young musicians. In the following years, she took up studying at the Lisbon Conservatory and took courses in composition, theory, and history of music.
International fame came in 1970, when she won the Beethoven Bicentennial Competition in Brussels. She has since then regularly performed with major orchestras throughout the world.
She also founded the Belgais centre for study of the arts [1].
In 2006 she moved to Salvador, Brazil and continues performing.
