Born in 1940, António Victorino d’Almeida started his musical studies with Marina Dewander Gabriel. After that, he studied Piano with Ferbando Leitão, composition with Artur Santos and Joly Braga Santos and Musical History with Maria Augusta Barbosa.
He finished, with 19 points (out of 20), the Superior Piano Course at the National Conservatory of Lisbon. where he was a student of Campos Coelho. Then, thanks to a scholarship from the Instituto da Alta Cultura, he went to Vienna, where he refined his performance technique with Wladislav Kedra and Dieter Weber.
Also in Wien, he graduated in composition with Karl Schiske, with the highest classification awarded by the Higher School of Music in that city. The jury was unanimous in that classification. He received the special award from the Austrian Ministry of Culture for being the best finalist student each year.
Later, he received a scholarship from Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian to study contemporary music with the composer Friedrich Cerha, electronic music with Dieter Kaufman and orchestral direction with Prof. Koslik.
For seven years he held the position of Cultural Attaché at the Embassy of Portugal in Wien.
He was a member of the jury at the Vianna da Motta Competition in Lisbon and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
In addition to being a concert performer, Victorino d’Almeida is a prolific composer, being undoubtedly one of the Portuguese composers who produced the most work, covering the most varied musical genres, such as solo music, for piano and other instruments, chamber music, symphonic and choral music, including opera, fado and a lot of music for cinema and theater.
Além de concertista, Victorino d’Almeida é um prolífico criador, sendo, sem dúvida, um dos compositores portugueses que mais obra produziu, abrangendo os mais variados géneros musicais, como a música a solo, para piano e outros instrumentos, música de câmara, sinfónica e coral, incluindo ópera, fado e muita música para cinema e teatro.
