"Ricardo Castro is a master in architecture with uncommon set of sonorities. He already plays in the court of the giants...A pianist to be followed closely." Le Monde de la Musique.

 "The major event of the evening was without any doubt the performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no 3 superbly interpreted by Brazilian pianist Ricardo Castro one of the few pianists who - in the 3rd movement - manages to suggest the kind of sensibility proper to Chopin and the glowing fire of Schumann's music." Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

The outstanding Brazilian pianist Ricardo Castro received world-wide acclaim when he won the 1993 Leeds International Piano Competition, the first Latin-American winner in the Competition’s history.

Born in Brazil, Ricardo Castro began his musical studies with Esther Cardoso at the age of 5 when exceptionally accepted at the Music School of the Federal University of Bahia. He appeared for the first time in public three years later and played Haydn’s D Major Concerto at the age of 10. He also studied in Europe where he lives since 1984 with Maria Tipo and Dominique Merlet.

BMG Arte Nova Classics signed Ricardo Castro as an exclusive recording artist from 1995 to 2000. He has recorded eight CDs, including Mozart Piano sonatas, a Liszt recital including the Dante sonata and Rigoletto Paraphrase, Manuel de Falla’s Noches en los Jardines de España. His Wigmore Hall recital in 1999/2000 season concluded a highly successful series of performances featuring the music of Chopin in cities including Geneva, Vienna and Sao Paulo and it coincided with the release of the 5-CD set of Chopin Masterpieces which have received great critical acclaim “a stylish player, with a fluid, expressive way with Chopin....an energizing radiance and grace which make the performances ear-catchingly fresh.” Daily Telegraph. Winning at Leeds launched Ricardo Castro on an international career, giving recitals in the world’s major concert halls and performing concertos with some of the world’s finest orchestras including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Academy of St.Martin-in-the-Fields, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Mozarteum of Salzburg, Suisse Romande and Tokyo Philharmonic. He has also worked with some of the world’s major conductors including Sir SimonRattle, Yakov Kreizberg, Leif Segerstam, Alexander Lazarev, Gilbert Varga, Markus Stenz, Kazimierz Kord and Libor Pesek.

2003/2004 season sees the beginning of an exciting new project in which Ricardo Castro and Maria João Pires are to collaborate. Together they give concerts in France, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Brazil, Italy and Portugal. In January 2005 a new CD with Maria João Pires for Deutsche Grammophon was released with Schubert’s works for four hand and solo piano. In 2005 the duo will perform in many european cities including Amsterdam (Concertgebouw) and Paris (Théâtre du Champs-Elysées).