Portrait of pianist Teresa Xavier at age of 3 at the Conservatory of Music of Porto — daughter of the pianist and teacher Maria Teresa Xavier.

“I must have been about three or four and I remember that I liked to sit on the floor, right underneath the piano whilst my Mother practised. It was a way of staying close to her, as if I were in a sort of musical womb, immersed in the resonances of the appassionata, Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto Nº 1 or Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance…I remember (...) the Conservatory in Rua do Carregal and how proud I was when I performed as a student of her piano class (...) The feeling of belonging to the Conservatory was very strong and made us feel as if we were at home. Master/disciple relations blended with family relations, with ties that endured from generation to generation, as we grew from students to teachers, of parents, their children and even their grandchildren!
The rigour, the discipline, the technical and artistic exigencies instilled and strongly followed were our values, albeit moulded by the humanism that characterised our teachers, who set us their example.
I could also remember the many students my mother taught, who today occupy prominent positions in Portugal’s musical life. Or even the innumerable solo recitals or chamber music recitals in which she played. Or the concerts with the symphony orchestra where she was the soloist, under conductors such as Frederico de Freitas, Silva Pereira, Gunther Arglebe, Manuel Ivo Cruz, to name just a few. Even the prizes she won…
But I would rather remember her like this – with her generous, exuberant smile – always ready to support her students and her piano, violin, cello, singing colleagues… each one knew he or she could rely on her and on the immense passion she showed in her devotion to music.
In memory of the pianist and teacher Maria Teresa Xavier, my Mother.
In memory of all the piano teachers at Porto Music Conservatory.”
Teresa Xavier