Pedro Burmester was born in Oporto. During ten years he has studied with Helena Costa, having finished his superior degree in Piano at the Conservatory of Porto (with the maximum mark, 20 points) in 1981. Later, he moved to the United States where he worked between 1983 and 1987 with Sequeira Costa, Leon and Dmitri Fleich Paperno. In addition, he has attended several master classes with pianists such as Karl Engel, Vladimir Ashkenasy, T. Nocolaiewa and E. Leonskaya.

Still at very young age, he was awarded in several competitions, namely the prize Moreira de Sá, the 2nd prize Vianna da Motta and the jury prize at the Van Cliburn competition in the United States.

He began his professional career at the age of 10 and since then he has performed over 1,000 solo concerts, also accompanying orchestras and in various chamber music ensembles in Portugal and abroad. He has participated in all Portuguese music festivals. Abroad, he has performed in prestigious events and venues such as La Roque d ‘Anthéron, Salle Gaveau, Festival of Flanders, the Frick Collection and the 92nd Y in New York, at the Cologne Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Beethoven House in Bonn and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

He has also collaborated with Manuel Ivo Cruz, Miguel Graça Moura, Alvaro Cassuto, Omri Hadari, Gabriel Shmura, Muhai Tang, Lothar Zagrosek, Michael Zilm, Frans Bruggen and Georg Solti.

In recent years, Pedro Burmester has dedicated himself more and more to he chamber music. He has ten-year duo with the pianist Mário Laginha and performs regularly with the violinists Gerardo Ribeiro and Thomas Zehetmair, with the cellists Anner Bylsma and Paulo Gaio Lima and the clarinetist António Saiote. More recently, he has formed a group of pianos and percussion which has has performed with great success in several festivals and concerts in Portugal.

His discography includes three solo CD’s with works by Bach, Schumann and Schubert, a duo CD with Mário Laginha and three recordings with the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon. In 1998 he released a new solo CD with works by Chopin. In 1999 he recorded the ten sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven with the violinist Gerardo Ribeiro. He has already recorded a dozen CD’s.

In 2007, alongside Bernardo Sassetti and Mário Laginha, the project “3 Pianos”, recorded live at the Centro Cultural de Belém, was released in CD and DVD.

In 2010, Pedro Burmester returned to Schumann and Schubert, with a new recording featuring Schubert’s Sonata in A Major, D. 959 and Schumann’s Symphonic Studies, op.13.

He was the Arts and Education Director at the Casa da Música, a project that he has helped to create and to implement.

He is currently Professor at the School of Music and Performing Arts in Oporto (his hometown), at the University of Aveiro  and also at the Professional School of Music of Espinho.