Unfortunately, her concert scheduled for the 28th of January 2024 at the Wigmore Hall was cancelled due to health reasons.
Unfortunately, her concert scheduled for the 29th of September 2022 at the Wigmore Hall was cancelled due to injury.
Maria João Pires retired temporarily from major concert projects in January 2018 and the soloist of a few concerts had to be changed as a result.
Piotr Anderszewski replaced her on the 15th of March 2018 at the Barbican Hall.
Anna Vinnitskaya replaced Maria João Pires for a concert scheduled on the 23rd of February 2017 at the Wigmore Hall.
She received Doctorate Honorary Degree by the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona in 2019
Maria João Pires won the Pessoa Prize in 1989.
She was given the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint James of the Sword in 1998, was made Commander of the Order of Prince Henry in 1989 and Dame of the Order of Saint James of the Sword, all three Portuegese orders of chivalry, in 1983.
Nepil: "Brahms’s three Intermezzi, Op117, proved a fitting vehicle for Maria João Pires’s softly spoken pianism ..."
Maria Pires won a Grammy Award in the concerto category in 2015 for a recording of Beethoven's Piano Concertos Nos 3 and 4 with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding.
She was nominated for a Grammy Award as 'Best Classical Instrumental Solo' performer in 2014.
She gave masterclasses as the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel's Piano Master in Residence between 2012 and 2016 in Waterloo, Belgium
She founded the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts in Portugal in 1999.
Maria João Alexandre Barbosa Pires was born in Lisbon in July 1944, and as early as 1951 won Portugal's top prize for young musicians.
She studied in the Lisbon Conservatory, before entering the Musikakademie of Munich and subsequently Hanover.
She won the Beethoven Bicentennial Competition in Brussels in 1970, the composer's 200th birthday.
She played Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor with The Berliner Philharmoniker on the 28th of August 1998, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester under the baton of Claudio Abbado on the 15th of August 1995 at the BBC Proms and made her BBC Proms debut on the 2nd of September 1992 with a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 with Riccardo Chailly conducting The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
She also played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 in G major on the 22nd of August 1999 with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Myung-Whun Chung at the BBC Proms.