João Bettencourt da Câmara was born in Lisbon on February 24 1988. After beginning studying piano with his father at the age of three, he was admitted to the Lisbon National Conservatoire, where he finished his piano course with the maximum mark. He attended many piano competitions, having been awarded prizes in all of them, such as the 2nd Prize in Florinda Santos Piano Competition (1998), twice the 1st Prize in Cidade do Fundão International Competition (1999 and 2000) and the 1st Prize in Maria Cristina Lino Pimentel Competition (2001). In 1999, he was chosen by the board of directors of the Lisbon National Conservatoire to participate in the second edition of the 'Veo Veo' International Competition, hosted by TVE (the main Spanish television and radio broadcaster), in which he received the Jury's Special Prize, after facing candidates from more than thirty countries. João gave his first recital at the age of 7, followed by numerous other performances in Lisbon, Porto, Madeira, the Azores Islands, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Latin America and the United States. After his first appearance as a soloist at the age of 11, with Mozart's 'Piano Concerto in A major K. 414', he has performed with Portugal's leading symphony orchestras, as well as international ones, playing such repertoire as 'Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 3' and 'Piano Concerto no. 5', Grieg's 'Piano Concerto in A', Chopin's 'Piano Concerto no. 1', Brahms' 'Piano Concerto no. 2', Liszt's 'Piano Concerto no. 2', Rachmaninoff's 'Piano Concerto no. 2', Gerhswin's 'Rhapsody in blue' and 'Piano Concerto in F', among others. From 2006 to 2012, João obtained a Bachelor of Music degree with Honours from the Royal College of Music (London, UK), for which he received the Sarah Mundlak Prize for the best graduating student of the year 2010, and a Master of Performance degree with Distinction from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London, UK). In 2017, he finished his Doctor of Music degree with Distinction at the University of Aveiro (Portugal), where he has held a position as a piano professor since 2013. In 2012, his first commercial CD recording was released worldwide by Numerica with Liszt's 'Sonata in B minor', 'Grösses Konzertsolo' and 'Fantasia and fugue on the theme B-A-C-H'. In 2016, his second CD recording was released, with a live performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff's 'Piano Concerto no. 2' and the Porto-Casa da Música Symphony Orchestra conducted by Takuo Yuasa. The following year, his third CD recording, dedicated to Portuguese music, was released, with João Domingos Bomtempo's 'Piano Concerto' no. 2 and Luís de Freitas Branco's 'Ballade for piano and orchestra' with the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra and conductor César Ivan Llara, live from the Teresa Carreño concert hall, in Caracas (Venezuela). João Bettencourt da Câmara is a member of iNET-md, a research center for ethnomusicology, music and dance.