Pedro Amaral was born in Lisbon in 1972 and is one of the most active European musicians of his generation. Composer and conductor, he graduated from the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (1991/94) and the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique de Paris (1994/98), where he received the First prize in composition. He studied orchestra conducting with Emilio Pomàrico and Peter Eötvös. At the same time, he studied at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales where he completed a doctorate on Momente, by Karlheinz Stockhausen, to whom he later became an assistant.
Working regularly at IRCAM between 1998 and 2004, he was the composer-in-residence at the Herrenhaus Edenkoben, in Germany, at the Villa Medici (French Academy in Rome) and at the Lenzi Palace, in Florence. Professor at the University of Évora and member of the National Academy of Fine Arts, he is the author of several works, including the operas O Sonho (London, 2010) and Beaumarchais (Lisbon, 2017).
As a conductor, he regularly conducts a repertoire that ranges from Viennese classicism to contemporary times. His complete collections of Beethoven's Symphonies and Piano Concertos were recorded on Portuguese television; Petrouchka, by Stravinsky, was recorded on Spanish television. His interpretations of the symphonic repertoire of Bruckner, Mahler and R. Strauss were highly praised by critics.
Pedro Amaral was also the Director of the National Conservatory Orchestra (2007/08), of the Sond’Arte Electric Ensemble (2007/10) and of the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra (2013/20).
© Photo by João Vilhena