João Pedro Gonçalves, born in 2000, began playing the cello at the age of twelve with Ana Cláudia Serrão as his mentor in Lisbon, and subsequently with Marco Pereira and Paulo Gaio Lima.
In recent years, he has had the opportunity to work with leading teachers such as Daniel Müller-Schott, Gary Hoffman, Jakob Koranyi, Kyril Zlotnikov, Marc Coppey, and María de Macedo, as well as many of the world's leading conductors, including Lorenzo Viotti, Gustavo Dudamel, and Giancarlo Guerrero.
João has won first prize in competitions including Concurso Capela (2016), Concurso Nacional de Cordas Vasco Barbosa (2017), Prémio Fundação INATEL (2019) and, most recently, Prémio Jovens Músicos (2021, over-18s category), where he won the Maestro Silva Pereira – Young Musician of the Year 2020/21 award.
As a soloist, he shares the stage with many orchestras, such as the Orquestra Gulbenkian, Camerata Atlântica, Orquestra Académica Metropolitana, Orquestra Profissional Metropolitana, and Orquestra Geração.
He studied with Jeroen Reuling at the koninklijk conservatorium brussel and plays a cello built by Tanguy Fraval on loan from the Strings For Talent Fund and the King Baudouin Foundation, in memory of Bonno H. Hylkema.