António Vitorino D'Almeida

António Victorino D'Almeida was the only son of Maria Amélia Goulart de Medeiros, who did a short career as lyric singer, and he was encouraged by his father also known as Victorino D'Almeida, a lawyer, to follow the arts to which he showed an earlier tendency. He was the grandson of Achilles D'Almeida, amateur musician and stage writer and director, and of Odette de Saint-Maurice, who wrote a number of novels aimed at children and young women. He studied composition with Artur Santos and Joly Braga Santos and he studied piano at the Lisbon National Conservatory of Music. He moved to Vienna where he studied further with Wladislav Kedra and Dieter Weber, and graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Thanks to a scholarship granted by the Gulbenkian Foundation he studied contemporary music with Friedrich Cehra and orchestra conducting with Prof. Koslik. Nominated cultural attaché to the Portuguese Embassy in Vienna from 1974 to 1981, while giving concerts and conferences in Portugal, as well contributing with many articles for newspapers and magazines in Portugal, France and Austria to promote musical culture, namely among the less educated classes. Considered an excellent though eclectic artist, he also is the author of over a hundred piano and orchestra compositions, as well as a few pieces of concrete music, and light music, such as fado, and arrangements. He has given concerts since he was 14, as solo pianist, in orchestras, and in chamber orchestras throughout Europe, Canada and Africa. In 1983, he formed a group called the TRIO, with the Austrian actress, singer and writer Erika Pluhar, and the Bulgarian guitarist Peter Marinoff with whom he participated in about 600 concerts. Victorino d'Almeida is also a writer, teacher, conductor, cinema and television producer, critic and presenter. Wrote the novel Coca-Cola Killer (1981), Histoires de Lamentation et de Réjouissance (short stories), a few music history books namely Musique et Variations, and Ce qu'est la musique, and Músicas da Minha Vida (2003). He wrote, directed and hosted about 150 TV programmes on music and general culture, for which he obtained popular and critical recognition. He also directed documentary TV series Histoire de la Musique, La Musique et le Silence, Duetos imprevistos, and Pianíssimo (2007).