Born in Porto (Portugal) in 1963, Pedro Burmester gave his first recital at the age of ten. He studied for ten years with Helena Costa, and worked with Léon Fleischer and Dmitri Paperno. He also attended the masterclasses of Jörg Demus, Aldo Ciccolini, Karl Engel, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Tatjana Nikolaiewa and Elisabeth Leonskaja.

In 1983, he won second prize at the International ‘Vianna da Mota’ piano competition in Lisbon. He was awarded the Jury prize at the 1989 Van Cliburn Competition in the US and has won several Portuguese national piano competitions.

As well as being regularly invited to perform all over Portugal, he has played in the main festivals in Belgium (Flanders and Wallonie Festival’s), France (Roque d’Anthéron), Germany (the Klavierfestival Ruhr and the Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker), Italy and the UK (Belfast Festival).

He has toured in Australia, Japan (with the Metropolitan Orchestra), Latin America, Poland, South Africa and the US and has been invited to perform by the 92nd Y-series and the Frick Collection in New York, the Salle Gaveau and Châtelet in Paris, the Kölner Philharmonie in Cologne, De Doelen in Rotterdam, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, as well as various German radio stations including Radio Bremen and WDR-Köln.

He has performed with many well-known orchestras including: the Australian Chamber Orchestra; the Belgian National Opera Orchestra; the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Nederlands Kamerorkest (the Netherlands); the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Portugal) and the Northern Sinfonia (UK), and was invited by Sir Georg Solti to perform Beethoven V with the London Symphony Orchestra at the opening concert of ‘Lisbon, Cultural Capital of Europe 1994’.

Pedro Burmester is also very much at ease in chamber music and has played, amongst others, with Anner Bylsma (cello), Mischa Maisky (cello), Thomas Zehetmair (violin) and the Prazak Quartet.