“This European recognition pays tribute to the exceptional contribution of one of the greatest pianists of our time to the promotion of cultural heritage and European values,” states the CNC in a press release.
According to the jury’s decision, led by Maria Calado, president of CNC, “Maria João Pires is one of Europe’s most poetic and influential pianists. Beyond being an extraordinary performer, she is a visionary educator, a cultural thinker, and a silent revolutionary in the field of musical heritage.”
The jury acknowledges in the pianist’s career, “deeply rooted in the values of empathy, inclusion, and artistic excellence,” the essence of the “mission of the Helena Vaz da Silva Award: raising public awareness of the European cultural heritage through humanistic and impactful engagement.”
Maria João Pires, reacting to the award, as quoted in the CNC statement, said: “Receiving an award corresponds to having an honor. Having an honor and being aware of it is to remember in detail all the people who gave their time, collaborated, and helped that honor to be bestowed. Therefore, my first reaction will always be to say ‘thank you’ to everyone for this opportunity.”
The pianist, born in Lisbon in 1944, has become one of the “most internationally prominent artists,” writes CNC, recalling Maria João Pires’ career trajectory from her first public performance at four years old to her acclaim in the 1980s-1990s.
After winning the first prize at the International Beethoven Competition in 1970, her name became a recurrent feature in the programs of major concert halls worldwide and in the catalogs of the largest classical music labels: Denon, first, for whom she recorded the award-winning complete Mozart Sonatas (1974); then Erato, in the 1980s, where she recorded works by Bach, Mozart, and one of the most celebrated renditions of Schumann’s “Scenes from Childhood”; followed by Deutsche Grammophon, in 1989.
In that year, she founded the Belgais Center for the Study of the Arts, in Escalos de Baixo, Castelo Branco, an educational, pedagogical, and cultural project dedicated to music, offering interdisciplinary workshops, concerts, and recordings that, according to CNC, might “in the future, be shared with the digital community.”
In 2012, in Belgium, she initiated two complementary projects: Partitura Workshops and Partitura Choirs, aimed at children’s choirs from underprivileged backgrounds, such as the Hesperos Choir.
According to CNC, “all these projects aim to create an altruistic dynamic between artists of different generations, proposing an alternative to a reality overly focused on competitiveness.”
Last June, Maria João Pires announced a temporary retreat from the stage due to a “cerebrovascular health issue.” At that time, she canceled concerts and recitals scheduled for Portugal and various European venues and Japan.
In August, she expressed excitement “with the idea of teaching ‘online’ again”: “Teaching […] is much more than that, it is a form of dialogue through music, ‘a give and take,’ an exchange of impressions, a shared learning in the art of listening, and a search for balance… Seeking together requires an agreement in experience. A work on ourselves, which will certainly give us more clarity.”
Throughout her career, Maria João Pires received the International Music Council Award from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 1970), the Pessoa Prize (1989), the Medal of Cultural Merit from the Portuguese Government, and the Personality of the Year/Martha de la Cal Award from the Foreign Press Association in Portugal (2019), the Praemium Imperiale (2024), from the Japan Art Association.
In the realm of discography, she was distinguished four times by the Charles Cross Academy, regularly nominated for the Grammy, and received a Gramophone award, notably for her interpretations of Sonatas and “Impromptus” by Schubert, “Nocturnes” by Chopin, and Concertos by Mozart and Beethoven.
The European Helena Vaz da Silva Award was established in 2013 by CNC, with the organization Europa Nostra and the Portuguese Press Club, with support from the Ministries of Culture, Youth and Sports, and Foreign Affairs, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and Turismo de Portugal.
Besides Maria Calado, the jury included Francisco Pinto Balsemão, founder of the Impresa Group, Piet Jaspaert, vice-president of Europa Nostra, João David Nunes from the Portuguese Press Club, Guilherme d’Oliveira Martins, administrator of the Gulbenkian Foundation, Irina Subotic, president of Europa Nostra Serbia, and Marianne Ytterdal from the Council of Europa Nostra.
The award ceremony for Maria João Pires will take place at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon, on November 1, at 17:00.
The inaugural European Helena Vaz da Silva Award in 2013 honored Italian writer Claudio Magris. Last year, the winner was German photographer Thomas Struth.
