On July 23, Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires turns 81. A blessed age in itself, but that did not stop the world-renowned musician from traveling from stage to stage with clockwork regularity and giving and sharing the very best with an always enthusiastic audience. Now she will have to step aside indefinitely.
Pires says she will not perform due to a cerebrovascular condition until she has recovered. The three-time GRAMMY-nominated pianist announced that she will not perform for a while until she recovers. "Dear friends, I am sorry to have to tell you that I will not be able to perform for a while," Pires said on Facebook. "A cerebrovascular problem has arisen, which I see as a sign – perhaps even a warning."
"I will spend this period rediscovering the balance between body and mind, and finding pleasure in solitude, reading, meditating and learning from the lessons life wants to teach me," she continued. "I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your patience, your support and your comforting words."
Born in Lisbon in 1944, Pires gave her first public piano recital at the age of four. She later studied at the Lisbon Conservatory under Campos Coelho and Francine Benoit. At age 17, she received a scholarship to study in Germany under Rösl Schmid and Karl Engel, and began her international career with a recital debut at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in 1986 and at Carnegie Hall in 1989. Since then, she has released recordings for the Erato label for 15 years and for Deutsche Grammophon for 25 years.
In 1999, she founded the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts in Portugal, where she established choirs for children from rural families. In 2012, she founded the Partitura Choirs for children from rural and underprivileged families. She won, among other awards, the first prize at the International Beethoven Competition in 1970, the International Music Council of UNESCO Prize and the Pessoa Award in 1989, and most recently the prestigious Japanese Praemium Imperiale Award.
We realize that there is a time to come and a time to go, but we still wish Maria João Pires all the best and hope to see and hear her again on the stages. She is an example of what playing piano is, what respect for the score is, what interpretation is, what humility is no matter how famous you may be. She is an artist of the purest blood and let her continue to be an inspiration to many. There are always too few of her caliber.