Ricardo Martins began his music studies at the Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa, in 1998, with Manuel Fernandes. A great enthusiast of chamber music since this time, Ricardo Martins played works by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms with several ensemble groups, with guidance from Armando Possante. He also started playing for singers, accompanying rehearsals and performing in recitals, with supervision from Ana Leonor Pereira and Elsa Cortez. Towards the end of his studies at this school, he was awarded a scholarship from Livraria Barata, and was a finalist for another scholarship from the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe.
Between 2004 and 2008, he completed his higher piano education at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa with Jorge Moyano. Alongside his solo courses, he worked with several chamber musicians, such as Olga Prats, Paulo Pacheco, Nuno Inácio and Fernando Fontes, playing a broad range of works by Beethoven, Doppler, Brahms, Poulenc, Damase, Wagner and Berg. Later, he returned to the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa for his Master’s degree in Music Teaching, under the supervision of Jorge Moyano and Miguel Henriques, with “Reading at first sight at the piano” as a dissertation subject (available for consultation at the Scientific Repository of the Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa).
Mr. Martins played in several masterclass with some of Europe’s best musicians, such as Rudolf Knoll, Ana Leonor Pereira, Hansjörg Schellenberger (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation), Nuno Inácio, Nuno Ivo Cruz and Sophie Perrier (Escola de Música Nossa Senhora do Cabo) and Fergus McWilliam (Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa). Sponsored by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he participated in workshops for correpetiteurs, recitativo playing, and conducting, with João Paulo Santos, Claudio Desderi, Jory Vinikour and Paul McCreesh (courses of the European Network of Opera Academies).
As a vocal coach and a correpetireur, Mr. Martins also participated in several opera productions, including Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne, with Jorge Matta and the Gulbenkian Orchestra (2012), Ohneama by João Guilherme Ripper, with Marcelo de Jesus and the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos’ Choir (2016), for the “Terras sem Sombra” festival, and for the Opera Studio of the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon, where Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (2017-2018) and Don Giovanni (2018-2019) were produced, with staging by Jorge Vaz de Carvalho and directed by Pedro Amaral. Alongside these productions, he also worked at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and with maestro Graeme Jenkins, for the production of Gluck’s opera Alceste, with staging by Graham Vick, for the 2018-2019 season.
As a sponsored artist by several renowned institutions, Mr. Martins had the distinguished opportunity to participate in a great number of piano masterclasses with world-renowned pianists, including Galina Eguiazarova, Sequeira Costa, Miklos Spaniy, Fausto Neves, Roberto Turin, Artur Pizarro, Mikhail Markov, António Rosado and Arcadi Volodos.
Currently, he has teaching appointment, as accompanist and piano teacher, at the Escola de Música Nossa Senhora do Cabo, as well as being a freelance accompanist and correpetiteur. He maintains a solo career, having received very favorable reviews from both fans and peers.
He rehearses frequently with the Gulbenkian Choir as an accompanist, having worked with conductors such as Joana Carneiro, Lawrence Foster, Jorge Matta, Michel Corboz, Fernando Eldoro, Paulo Lourenço, John Nelson, Ludovic Morlot, Paul McCreesh, Gustavo Dudamel, Leonardo García Alarcón and Ludwig Wicki. As guest musician, he also played with the Gulbenkian Orchestra for several concerts, as well as playing with the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon. In 2019, he participated in the Festival ao Largo, with the Teatro de São Carlos’ Choir, Cristiana Oliveira, Carlos Cardoso and the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, for a concert dedicated to Verismo, with maestro Andrea Sanguineti.
Ricardo Martins also played in a concert for the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of SATA, at Açor Arena (2016), with the Coro de São José, alongside Maria da Luz Albuquerque, José Corvelo, and maestro Luís Filipe Carreiro.
Passionate about chamber music, he has performed recitals with a many musicians, an in many different ensembles. Some more recent projects include works by french neo-classical composers, such as Pierre Max-Dubois, Jacques Ibert and André Jolivet, as well as more modern works, such as “Fuzzy Bird Sonata” by Takashi Yoshimatsu, with saxophonist Raimundo Semedo.
As a soloist, Mr. Martins has played in several concert halls, such as the National Museum of Music, for the “À tarde no Museu” (2016 and 2017) and “Músicas do Acervo” (2017, 2018 and 2019) seasons – the latter dedicated to the work of Portuguese composers Fernando Lopes-Graça, Armando José Fernandes and Luís de Freitas Branco. He also took part in the special celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa, with a recital at the CGD Auditorium of the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. He was featured on the morning radio show Império dos Sentidos, with Paulo Alves Guerra, at the Antena 2 station.
His orchestra debut was with Francis Poulenc’s Piano Concerto, with the Orquestra Sinfónica of the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, and maestro Vasco Azevedo.
After the lockdown situation of early 2020, Ricardo Martins returned again to the Museu Nacional da Música with a short concert featuring works by Portuguese composer José Vianna da Motta.