Porto-born pianist Álvaro Teixeira Lopes completed in 1981 his studies at the Porto Music Conservatoire with top marks. He studied under Isabel Rocha and Helena Sá e Costa, and in 1979/1980 he studied with Jorge Moyano at the National Conservatoire in Lisbon. Thanks to scholarships from the Austrian government, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the State Department of Culture, he went on to study in Vienna with Paul Badura Skoda and Noel Flores and in Paris with Marian Rybicki.

A multiple prizewinner, Lopes has a busy national and international career as a solo and chamber music performer, often being invited to play at the most prestigious festivals in Portugal, as well as in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Malta, Spain and the UK.

He is a member of Solistas do Porto and the Khora Ensemble, and often performs with the Suggia String Quartet and accompanies the cellist José Pereira de Sousa, his nephew Francisco Berény, and plays four-handed with the pianist Fausto Neves.

Álvaro Teixeira Lopes recorded two CDs with José Pereira de Sousa for the Numérica label, one of which is totally devoted to Portuguese music from the twentieth century. He also recorded a CD of music by Astor Piazzolla with the Khora Ensemble. In 2006, he brought out a solo CD of works by Amílcar Vasques Dias: Doze Nocturnos em Teu Nome and Lume De Chão – tecido de memórias e afectos.

He has debuted pieces by Cláudio Carneyro, Frederico de Freitas, Fernando Corrêa de Oliveira, Fernando Lapa, Cândido Lima, Amílcar Vasques Dias, António Chagas Rosa and Evguene Zouldikine, some of which dedicated to him.

He produced Visions de L’Amen, by Olivier Messiaen, with the pianist Miguel Borges Coelho, and the Piano Concerto by Nino Rota with the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra.

He has taught numerous courses in performance and piano teaching in Portugal, Brazil and Italy.

He receives frequent invitations to sit on the juries of piano competitions, including the 11th, 15th and 20th Porto International Piano Competition. He represented Portugal at the 21st Valentino Bucchi Piano Competition in Rome. In Portugal, he was a jury member at: the Florinda Santos Piano Competition, the International Competition of the City of Fundão, the Iberian Piano Competition Alto Minho, the Luís Costa International Piano Competition, the Porto Music Conservatoire Competition, the Santa Cecilia Competition and the Marília Rocha Competition.

He is a Guest Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication and Art of the University of Aveiro, where he teaches piano and chamber music. His commitment to teaching is reflected in the large number of his former students who now teach at music schools and Conservatoires throughout the country and who have won awards at national and international competitions.

He is artistic director of the Santa Cecilia International Competition and a Board Member of the Silva Monteiro Music School. He often collaborates with writers and actors in cross-disciplinary projects such as “Projeto COiNCIDÊNCIA”, with the actor Pedro Lamares.