Luís Figueiredo, born in Coimbra in 1979, is a Portuguese pianist, composer, arranger and musical producer.
He began his musical studies at age 8. After two years of private piano lessons, in 1989 he entered Conservatório de Música de Coimbra, where graduated he graduated in Piano. In 2005 he graduated in Piano from Universidade de Aveiro, where he studied under Vitali Dotsenko, Fausto Neves, António Chagas Rosa and Vasco Negreiros, others. That same year, he attended Jazz School Luiz Villas Boas at the Hot Clube de Portugal in Lisbon, under Filipe Melo, Bernardo Moreira, Ricardo Pinheiro and Bruno Santos. In 2016 he completed his PhD at Universidade de Aveiro, under the supervision of ethnomusicologist Susana Sardo and pianist/composer Mário Laginha. During this period of training, he attended a number of masterclasses and workshops with Álvaro Teixeira Lopes, Andrezej Pikul, Roy Howatt, Liv Glaser, Mário Laginha, Valery Starodubrovsky, Dave Liebman and Hervé N’Kaoua, others. He also participated in several academic events in the areas of musical performance and musicology, such as the SIBE (Sociedade Ibérica de Etnomusicologia) Conference in Salamanca and Lisbon, the Rhythm Changes International Jazz Conference in Amsterdam, the Leeds International Jazz Conference in Leeds, Jazz Talks – Aveiro International Jazz Conference (Aveiro, Portugal), ENIM (Encontros Nacionais de Investigação em Música) locations in Portugal, and Post-The Post-The National Music Conference in Portugal, He has invited as speaker in a number of occasions, including a TED talk at the Aveiro 2012 edition, Escola Superior de Educação de Coimbra (Forum of Arts and Technologies), the EPTA – European Piano Teachers Association Conference in Portugal, Academia de Música de Castelo de Paiva, Music Academy of Torre de Moncorvo, Conservatory of Music of Coimbra, and others many.
Between 2005 and 2015, he taught at such institutions as Coimbra Conservatory of Music, Jobra Music Conservatory (Branca, Albergaria-a-Velha), Conservatory of Music of S. José da Guarda and Tone Music School, in Coimbra. On occasion, he has taught masterclasses and workshops in the areas of classical music, jazz and composition at several institutions in Portugal and abroad. Between 2011 and 2019 was closely connected with the master’s programs in Music and Music Teaching at Universidade de Aveiro, where he worked as as coordinator of the Jazz department and vice-director of the master’s program in Music Performance. He also taught piano, chamber music, jazz combo, composition and jazz studies.
Luís Figueiredo has been professionally active since 2004 in the fields of musical performance (both classical and improvised), composition and arrangement, arrangement and musical production. He released his first album as a leader in 2010 (Manhã, JACC Records) and has since collaborated then in about other thirty record editions. He has worked and/or recorded with Cristina Branco, Bruno Pedroso, Carlos Bica, André Fernandes, Luísa Sobral, Alexandre Frazão, Reinier Baas, João Moreira, Ana Bacalhau, Mário Delgado, Bernardo Moreira, David Binney, João Hasselberg, Perico Sambeat, Mário Laginha, Marta Hugon, Ricardo Toscano, Eduardo Raon, Rita Maria, Diogo Duque,& Davis, to name only a few. He has worked with Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, Metropolitan Orchestra, Classical Orchestra of the South, Orchestra XXI, Hr Frankfurt Rundfunk Big Band (Germany), Orchestre National de Bretagne (FR), Het Gelders Orkester (Netherlands), as well as well a number of music ensembles, under conductors as the Cesário Costa, DinisAntónio Vassalo Lourenço. His tour schedule has included concerts, masterclasses and artistic residencies in a wide range of locations, as such Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, Morocco and Brazil.
Figueiredo was the arranger of the winning song at the 2017 Eurovision Contest, “Amar Pelos Dois”. He works regularly as arrange and producer, and is often commissioned compose music for different purposes.
Since 2008, he has also collaborated in theatre and cinema composer, performer and musical director. In this field, he has worked with Tiago Cravidão, António Ferreira, O Teatrão, Sandra Barata Belo, Patrícia André, Rui Pedro Silva and Teatro Praga.
In 2019 Luís Figueiredo founded independent label Roda Music, along with musicians fellow Rita Maria and Mário Franco.
