Ana Beatriz

Born on a scorching August afternoon in the beautiful region of Alentejo, in southern Portugal, Ana Beatriz does not remember a life without music. The daughter of two classical music lovers, Ana Beatriz was drawn to the piano from a very early age, starting formal lessons at the age of seven. At eight years old, a fascination with the ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto turned Ludwig van Beethoven into her favourite composer. Years later, in her adolescent years and while studying at the National Conservatoire, in Lisbon, where she finished her final piano exam with full marks, Russian music became her particular interest.

Today, Ana Beatriz is an engaged recitalist, chamber musician and soloist. Her career has led her to perform in several venues in Portugal, the UK and Canada.

Her most important project to date has been her work on the Piano Concerto by Portuguese composer Joly Braga Santos – she organised and performed the concerto’s UK premiere in London in 2015 with the In Tune Orchestra conducted by Pablo Urbina, virtually bringing the work to life.

Since then, Ana Beatriz has performed this concerto at St. David’s Hall in Cardiff, Wales, with the Cardiff University Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mark Eager, and on tour in Portugal with the Portuguese Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Osvaldo Ferreira. Other concerts with orchestras and ensembles have included performances with the Filarmonia das Beiras Orchestra, Maia Chamber Orchestra, Cardiff University String Orchestra and the Cardiff Contemporary Music Group. 

Ana Beatriz holds both a Bachelor Degree in Music and a Master’s Degree in Performance from the Royal College of Music, in London, having studied with Ruth Nye MBE – one of Claudio Arrau’s rare disciples – Gordon Fergus-Thompson and Dina Parakhina. She is now reading for a PhD in Performance at Cardiff University School of Music on a full scholarship.

She has also won several prizes, including 1st Prize in Maria Christina Lino Pimental Competition, 1st Prize in Lopes-Graça Competition, and 2nd Prize in Chamber Music at the Young Musicians Competition. Academically, she has won four consecutive Merit and Excellence Awards by Fundação Eugénio de Almeida. She was also generously sponsored by Grupo Jerónimo Martins, Amigos de Música de S. Lourenço and Mundo Crastino Meliori Foundation for her studies at the RCM in London.

Participation in piano masterclasses has given Ana Beatriz the opportunity to work with Luiz de Moura Castro, Paul Badura-Skoda, Vitaly Margulis, Boris Berman, Dmitri Alexeev, Enrico Pace, Ingrid Fliter and Boris Petruchansky.

Alongside her performing career, Ana Beatriz is also a piano tutor at the Junior Conservatoire of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, having also given masterclasses in Portugal and online.

Future performances would have included another appearance at St. David’s Hall with the CUSO in Cardiff, and a concert with Cardiff University Chamber Orchestra at the BBC Hoddinott Hall, also in Cardiff, with conductor Andrea Quinn. Unfortunately, these were cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.