Brazilian pianist Arthur Moreira Lima died on Wednesday at the age of 84. He was undergoing treatment for intestinal cancer and died in Florianópolis, where he lived with his family.
Moreira Lima was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1940, where he made his professional debut at the age of 8, playing Mozart with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. He later studied with Marguerite Long in Paris.
In 1965, he won second place in the Warsaw Chopin Competition, which in its seventh edition gave first place to Argentinian Martha Argerich.
His first albums soon established him as a leading interpreter of Chopin’s work, to which he dedicated himself since the 1970s, when he recorded the composer’s complete work for piano and orchestra, as well as dedicating himself to his solo work.
In 1981, Moreira Lima released the album Com Licença, a first milestone in his broad interest in Brazilian music.
In the early 2000s, Moreira Lima moved away from the traditional concert stage and created the project Um Piano na Estrada (A Piano on the Road). With a piano installed in a truck, he would travel more than 300,000 kilometers, passing through different regions of the country.
