Maria Inês Costa was born in Oporto in 1994. Following her graduation at the Royal College of Music, she has recently concluded her Master Studies in Piano Performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she is now pursuing her Artist Diploma studies with Charles Owen, Martin Roscoe and Ronan O’Hora as a scholar. She is also generously supported by Talent Unlimited, by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and by Help Musicians UK.
Inês has performed in many venues including Oporto's Coliseu, Clube Literário and Ateneu Comercial, Coimbra’s Quinta das Lágrimas, Aveiro's University Great Hall, Óbidos’ Auditório da Casa da Música, Loures’ Pavilhão Paz e Amizade, Caldas da Rainha’s Centro Cultural e de Congressos, Estoril’s Portuguese Music Museum, Lisbon’s Centro Cultural de Belém and Terreiro do Paço, London’s Steinway Hall, Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall, St James’s Church Piccadilly, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, St. George’s Hanover Square, Regent Hall, Charlton House, Cambridge University (Robinson College) and Nafplio’s Vouleftikon, Saint Spyridon’s Square and Thessaloniki’s Concert Hall in Greece.
Recent concerto performances included a tour in Portugal with Lisbon’s Metropolitana Orchestra playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, the Schumann Piano Concerto with the ARTAVE Orchestra and the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Beiras' Philarmonic Orchestra. She won the Merit prize of the Ministry of Education in 2012, a one-year award for the 2014-15 academic year at the Royal College of Music and several awards and scholarships whilst at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She recently was a finalist at the Yamaha Scholarship Competition and prize winner at the 2017 Verão Clássico Masterclasses in Lisbon (3rd Prize) and at the 2017 Musical Odyssey Summer Masterclasses.
Inês is also interested in conducting and received an invitation for the last European Union Youth Orchestra summer tour, playing both piano and celesta in Shostakovich's Symphony no. 5 with Xian Zhang as a conductor at the Berlin Konzerthaus and in Wiesbaden and Philip Glass's Double Concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra with Vasily Petrenko in Grafenegg.