Pianist and pedagogue Alberto Portugheis was born in La Plata, Argentina, to parents of Russian and Rumanian descent. His international career began after winning First Prize at the Geneva Concours de Virtuosité.
He performs in recitals, chamber-music concerts and as soloist with major orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Philharmonia, English Chamber Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Paris and Israel Sinfoniettas, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Sinfonica Nacional of Argentina, Filarmonica of Buenos Aires. His annual Steinway Masterclasses are now legendary.
Alberto Portugheis’s repertoire includes music from the baroque to contemporary, with several composers writing specially for him. His acclaimed recordings include: 4 Chopin Ballades, Alfred Nieman nd Sonata, Ginastera complete piano music and chamber music with piano, Khachaturian Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra, Khachaturian solo works, Rachmaninov and Shostakovitch cello and piano sonatas with the cellist Gwyneth George, a CD dedicated to the piano music of Rossini. 2013 saw the release of a double CD with The Complete Piano Works by Spanish composer Elena Romero.
Alberto Portugheis is founder member and Vice-chairman of the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe, Vice-chairman of the International Society for the Study of Tension in Performance, Vice-president of the European Piano Teachers' Association and founder of the Asociacion Latino-Americana de Pianistas Pedagogos.
Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for his peace work and proposals, Portugheis published The Game of War and a Path to Peace the following year. His second book '$$$$s in their Hearts' was released in November 2014.
Described by International Piano Magazine as: “...an armour-clad player of complete technique, a thinking musician, a natural Romantic.”, Malaysian Bobby Chen was a pupil of Ruth Nye and Hamish Milne at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal Academy of Music, and burst on the scene playing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in a British tour with Lord Yehudi Menuhin and the Warsaw Sinfonia, and a recital at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the South Bank Prokofiev Festival.
Since then, he has performed as concerto soloist with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta, under Mathias Bamert, Maximiliano Valdés, Michal Nesterowicz, Sir Neville Marriner, Pierre-André Valade, Lan Shui, Jonathan Bloxham and Giancarlo Guerrero.
He has broadcast live for Classic Fm, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (Radio Television Ireland), Radio Television Hong Kong and Pianoforte Chicago, and has performed at Hong Kong’s City Hall, Fazioli Concert Hall, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, Singapore’s Victoria Concert Hall, Sibelius Museum, and at Bridgewater Hall, Royal Concert Hall, Cadogan Hall, Purcell Room, Reid Concert Hall, Royal Overseas League and Menuhin Hall, including four solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall.
Free recital with retiring collection