The pianist Luiz Costa

Luiz Costa, one of the most preeminent Portuguese pianists and composers of his time, belongs to the first generation of piano teachers at Porto Music Conservatory. His intense teaching activity was divided between his position as piano teacher at the conservatory from its foundation to 1949 and the many private lessons he gave at home. He left an indelible mark on the training of a generation of Portuguese pianists such as Berta Alves de Souza, Hélia Soveral and Helena Sá e Costa. He trained in Germany between 1905 and 1907, where he studied under Vianna da Mota, Bernhard Stavenhagen, Conrad Ansorge and Ferrucio Busoni, representatives of the “New German School of Piano”, founded by Franz Liszt. He pursued an intense solo career and also playing in chamber music concerts, having played with musicians such as Casals, Guilhermina Suggia, Cortot, Enesco or Friedman. Note, too, his activity as president of the Sociedade de Concertos Orpheon Portuense (Concert Society of the Porto Choir) during which he promoted in Porto concerts by some of the greatest names in music, such as Ravel, Arrau, Backhaus, Landowska, Fischer, among many others. Luiz Costa is also one of the most representative composers of Portuguese Modernism, gathering multiple influences, from the poetry of Corrêa de Oliveira and Teixeira de Pascoaes, to the sculpture of Teixeira Lopes and also the rural environment of his native Minho.