Art song and chamber music lie at the heart of the artistic work of Portuguese pianist Pedro Costa. Since 2026, he has combined his performing career with work as a collaborative pianist at two of Austria’s leading music universities: the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (mdw) and the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien (MUK). From 2017 to 2026, he worked as a collaborative pianist at the Kunstuniversität Graz (KUG).
His commitment to art song is also reflected in Projeto:Canção, a Porto-based festival of which he is co-founder and Artistic Director, bringing together renowned artists for concerts and masterclasses to promote the genre in Portugal.
Pedro was awarded the 1st Piano Prize at the Helmut Deutsch Lied Competition in Vienna (2021) and the 2nd Prize ex aequo at the International “Franz Schubert and Modern Music” Lied-Duo Competition in Graz (2022). Other awards include the 1st Prize and Audience Prize at the Louis Spohr Competition for Song Accompaniment in Kassel, the 1st Prize at the Estoril Interpretation Competition, the 1st Prize at the Portuguese Radio Chamber Music Competition (Prémio Jovens Músicos), and the Best Accompanist Prize at the Rotary Club Singing Competition in Lisbon.
He has appeared at leading venues across Europe, among them Wigmore Hall (London), the Great Hall of the Mozarteum (Salzburg), Volksoper (Vienna), Flagey (Brussels), Casa da Música (Porto) and Centro Cultural de Belém, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon). Festival engagements have included Heidelberger Frühling, Liedfest Berlin-Oxford, the Marvão International Music Festival, Festival ao Largo, Cistermúsica, the Póvoa de Varzim International Music Festival and Festival Estoril Lisboa.
As a soloist, he has performed with the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Orquestra do Algarve, Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, Orquestra de Câmara de Cascais e Oeiras, Orkest der Lage Landen and Koninklijke Muziekkapel van de Gidsen, working with conductors including Nuno Coelho, Joana Carneiro, Zvonimir Hačko, Walter Proost, Yves Segers, Luís Carvalho and Joséphine Korda.
In 2023, Pedro Costa recorded “Mensagem - Portuguese Music for Trombone and Piano” with trombonist Gabriel Antão and “Un rêve entre guerre et paix” with soprano Laure-Catherine Beyers. His discography also includes a contribution to Luís Tinoco’s album “Aleppo and other silences” (2022), on which he performs the piano quartet “Forgotten Places”. His performances have been broadcast on Portuguese radio station Antena 2 and televised by RTP.
Since 2022, Pedro Costa has been an official pianist for the violin masterclasses of the European Music Institute Vienna and Verão Clássico in Lisbon. He works regularly with Eszter Haffner and has also collaborated with Stephan Picard, Pavel Vernikov, Viviane Hagner, Esther Hoppe, Philippe Graffin and Alissa Margulis, among others. His teaching work includes regular Lied masterclasses in Porto, as well as collaborations with the Xiquitsi Project in Maputo, Mozambique, where he worked on projects involving vocal music and opera.
Born in Macao, Pedro Costa studied with Fausto Neves and Luís Filipe Sá in Porto and later with Piet Kuijken at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. He completed a Master’s degree in Lied Interpretation at the Kunstuniversität Graz with Joseph Breinl and Julius Drake and has also taken part in masterclasses led by Udo Reinemann, Christianne Stotijn, Anne Sofie von Otter, Peter Schreier, Christoph Prégardien, Brigitte Fassbaender, Wolfgang Holzmair and many others.