“With the Chopin Etude op.25 no.7, Nuno Ventura de Sousa filled the hall with a beauty that cannot be expressed with words. Listening to this quality of performance in a competition is nothing short of a miracle.”

– Chopin Magazine, Japan.

Nuno Ventura de Sousa was born in July 1996. He started his piano studies with Professor Maria José Guedes in Porto Music Conservatoire. He was admitted to Hannover Music University and University of North Texas, ultimately choosing the latter to continue his studies with Maestro Vladimir Viardo who studied with Lev Naumov and received the Gold Medal in the 1973 Van Cliburn Competition. Ventura de Sousa graduated from the University of North Texas in 2017 and is currently pursuing a Master of Performance at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with the acclaimed Professor Jiracek von Arnim.

Nuno Ventura de Sousa has obtained almost 50 prizes of which around 40 were first place prizes in national and international competitions in Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro, and the United States, including 1st prize in Santa Cecilia Competition (Porto), 1st prize in Antón García Abril Competition (Teruel), 1st prize in “Manja” Competition (Montenegro), 2nd prize in “César Franck” Competition (Belgium), and 2nd prize ex-aequo in “Manhattan” Competition (New York).

He has performed in many recitals in Portugal, Japan, the United States, and throughout Europe. Highlights include the opening of 2016 and 2019 EDP Piano Cycle at Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal and the Recitals in António de Almeida Foundation. He has participated in masterclasses with worldclass musicians such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Arie Vardi, Andrei Diev, Logan Skelton, Gabriel Sanches, Artur Pizarro, Lovro Pogorelich, and Boris Kraljevic.

Ventura de Sousa started composing when he was 11 and has actively continued ever since, having completed four piano Sonatas (the latest being the first one published), other sets (like “Notes in a Diary” in e flat minor), several preludes, transcriptions, etc. His influences include Nikolai Medtner, Sergei Rachmaninoff, orthodox choral music, and Slavic folk songs.