Luísa Tender (pianist, piano pedagogue, music researcher). Born in Portugal in 1977, she studied piano with Anne Mennet, Helena Costa and Pedro Burmester. In 1997 she became a pupil of Vitalij Margulis in Los Angeles, where she studied until she was admitted at the Royal College of Music in London in 2000. There she studied with Irina Zaritskaya and obtained her Master of Music degree. Luísa also earned the Diplôme Supérieur d’Exécution at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. She holds a PhD in Music Education and Psychology (NOVA University, Lisbon). Her first published CD, 'Bach and Forward' (author's edition, 2009) was Classical Music Magazine’s Choice of the Month. Her second recording, 'Página Esquecida', is a double CD with Portuguese music for cello and piano (Dreyer & Gaido, Berlin, 2009). She published the recording of J. D. Bomtempo’s piano sonatas (Naxos/Grand Piano, double cd, 2019). Luísa was co-author (with Manuel P. Ferreira) of the book 'O pescador de sons' (Lisboa, CESEM, 2019), published in German language in 2023. Her most recent written work is the book 'Mundos num oito' (Porto, Officium Lectionis, 2026), a novel featuring topics of Music Education and Philosophy. Luisa started her teaching carreer as Piano assistant professor at ESMAE, in Porto. She is currently the principal piano professor at IPCB-ESART in Castelo Branco, PT, where she also coordinates the Master of Music Programme. She is the president of the general-assembly of EPTA Portugal (European Piano Teachers Association). She was the recipient of a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and of a study support grant from the Royal College of Music. Luisa is a researcher at CESEM (NOVA University, Lisbon). A native speaker of Portuguese, she is fluent in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. An overview of her live music performances, amongst other activities, can be found at www.luisatender.com