Ricardo
Alves
Pereira

Award winning classical guitarist Ricardo Alves Pereira is deeply involved in many aspects of music. He is a dedicated studio artist, being one of the most prolific album producers of the new generation.

His love for the craft is heard in a highly varied musical range that include classical guitar music,  Medieval and Renaissance repertoire played on historical instruments such as the lute and the vihuela, and modern works for classical guitar and electric guitar. written by himself.

Ricardo Alves Pereira leads his audience to imagine stories through musical narratives, a concept and technique that he developed over the years as a solo guitarist. Within the musical narratives, the musical pieces are presented with a unique parallel content in spoken word form, spread throughout the performance, guiding the listener to experience a new interpretation of the story the music has to present. This methodology captivated listeners all across Europe, during his solo, orchestral and ensemble concerts.

While Ricardo Alves Pereira is mainly known today for his various classical and early music works, his musical journey on stage had started out with experimental live electronic music performances. His latest album RETROQUEST brings together his past and present, blending his early influences with a fresh and mature sound.

He is the co-founder of the TWB Ensemble and the founder of the Leyriath Assemblage. He makes innovative arrangements of early music for the ensemble, as well as creating musical narratives that blend historical facts with a touch of fantasy. His latest reserach contains collecting local myths, legends and historical facts from Leiria and its neighboring regions to present in the Leyriath Assemblage.

Ricardo is also behind the scenes in all the music he produces in roles that extend from arrangement making and sound engineering to visual design. He plays on a classical guitar by Spanish luthier Ana Espinosa in 2009, and his renaissance vihuela was made for him by Portuguese luthier Orlando Trindade in 2022.

Event NEWS

O TROVADOR

Legado Musical de D. Dinis - Musical Legacy of D. Dinis

Ricardo Alves Pereira

Oud, voz, narração

The Troubadour – Musical Legacy of D. Dinis marks the 700th anniversary of the death of Portugal’s Poet-King with a special concert series led by medievalist and performer Ricardo Alves Pereira. In these intimate solo events, Pereira unveils a rarely heard repertoire: the Cantigas de Amor of D. Dinis, offering audiences a unique opportunity to rediscover the music of one of the most fascinating figures of the Iberian Middle Ages.

Taking place in June 2025 across historic and cultural venues in northern and central Portugal, each concert blends performance with storytelling, inviting listeners into the poetic world of medieval courtly love. After each event, audiences are welcome to join a meet & greet with the artist.

The music featured in this series comes from the Sharrer Parchment, one of only two surviving Iberian secular manuscripts with musical notation—unearthed just 35 years ago in the Torre do Tombo archives. The melodies have been carefully brought to life through Ricardo Alves Pereira’s ongoing research with the TWB Ensemble, staying true to the medieval source.

LATEST RELEASE – CONTEMPORARY Music

RETROQUEST

by Ricardo Alves Pereira

RETROQUEST is a contemporary, indie-classical, electronica/ambient/instrumental album that combines processed guitar compositions with an everlasting vinyl noise, creating an ambiance that sounds experimental in an inviting manner. Each track consists a different form of treatment, some to create large environments while others to shine the simplistic end. Each effect processor directly fed by the guitar signal accentuates the versatile language of the electric guitar, even with its clenaest tone. It merges rather vintage, or retro sounding, sound effects with modern sonorities, while using timeless, hence evergreen harmonic structures, enigmatic chords, naive melodies, immense arpeggios, and it can be taken as a modern ambient abstract work of music.

Medieval Music

OUD

by Ricardo Alves Pereira

OUD is the lightest, most peaceful, and most hopeful album coming out of CordaSonora. It is the perfect introduction to Medieval music, presented as a solo collection of songs arranged for the oud. Ricardo Alves Pereira and his almond-shaped instrument invites the audience to be the visitors of a medieval inn, protected from the fierce winter outside, while enjoying a bard in the corner making his music.

The album consists of 14 melodies of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, transcribed directly from the original manuscripts “Códice de los Músicos” and “Códice Rico”, two musical collections unparalleled for their beauty and richness, both attributed to King Alfonso X (1221-1284), and presented to the audience with arrangements done by Ricardo Alves Pereira for Turkish oud, a close relative to the iberian medieval lute seen in the illuminations of the manuscripts of Cantigas de Santa Maria.

Crafted with passion and inspired by the mystical medieval Iberia, this album is a labor of love. Meticulously detailed, it promises an immersive experience.

Three iconic melodies from the Cantigas de Santa Maria were released as singles during the album creation process. “Santa Maria amar” (CSM 7) is a sweet gem, “Por nos de dulta tirar” (CSM 18) is a meditative hymn, and “Virgen madre groriosa” ( CSM 340) is a celestial melody crowned with improvisations surrounding it.

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

Streams of Tranquility

In his third solo classical guitar album Streams of Tranquility, Ricardo Alves Pereira explores the still and the beautiful. The immersive and modern melodies weave the album’s soundscape into the depths of calmness within the contemporary music scene. Aside from presenting his skills as a classical guitar player, in this album Ricardo Alves Pereira also shares his composer side with the audience; and it is fresh, intimate and inviting.

Three singles from the album are released in advance to present the ambience experienced throughout the album composed by Ricado Alves Pereira. “Stardust” is an instrumental love song inspired by the thought that everything in our world, including ourselves, is made of stardust. “The Timeless I: Into Oblivion” fully envelops the listener with a feeling of endless adrifting. “Nocturnal Voices II: Nightwalker” is a musical expression of calm darkness and continuous wandering in the still night.

Classical Guitar

Solo Works

Ricardo’s musical works orbit around early music, classical and romantic era classical guitar music and contemporary music.

“The Foundation” is the second solo guitar album of Ricardo Alves Pereira. It is a complete collection of works first published in 1836, known as the Introduction à l’Étude de la Guitare, Op.60, written by composer and virtuoso guitarist Fernando Sor, one of the most famous musicians of the classical and romantic era.

With this album Ricardo Alves Pereira recalls the beginning of his classical guitar journey and shares his connection to the learning process of his instrument.

Ciclos – Solo Classical Guitar Album

Recorded in 2015, “Ciclos” was a result of receiving the first prize on the competition “Premios Mans Futuro”, in À Coruña (Spain).

Ciclos consists of compositions from Tárrega, Regondi, Llobet, Debussy, Sor, Brocá, Dowland, and also a composition from Ricardo himself. The album explores his original concept of musical narratives for classical guitar and expresses various cycles in the life of a person. “In the great intercicle network, the end of a cycle is simply the time when one stops and dazzles the infinite”.

Ricardo Alves Pereira

Play now

Scores

Examples from a versatile repertoire of collaborations and participations.

Become a CordaSonora Family Member to access full resolution sheet music.

Scoring of the title track from CordaSonora’s latest release “Streams of Tranquility”, which is prepared for the classical guitar player and also for any other musician to enjoy as the original score is followed by the extracted melody, which is the first that will be followed by many.

“I wrote this and many other songs for the children I used to teach in order to provide them various aspects of music such as dynamics and tempo, that orbited around love, care and safety; as they really need to be present around those things.” – Ricardo Alves Pereira

“At that time I was reading Carl Sagan and one of his sentences; “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”, touched me so profoundly that I was inspired to compose Stardust, linking it to love and unity.” – Ricardo Alves Pereira

Ensemble Work Examples

The Wandering Bard

TWB Ensemble is celebrating their reach to 1M listeners worldwide!

The Wandering Bard (a.k.a. TWB Ensemble) merges qualities of early music with the everlasting tradition of storytelling. Inspired by the traditions of bards, the ensemble performs and produces their repertoire accompanied by a narrative that shape their manuscript based arrangements and ties the beginning of the concert to the end.

The sixth album by the TWB Ensemble (The Wandering Bard) is an exhilarating journey through sound, a musical marvel that breathes new life into the medieval Cantigas de Santa Maria, attributed to Alfonso X, the Wise, a visionary Iberian king of the 13th century embellished by a legend from Leyriath.

Read the story related to the album here

TWB Ensemble presents yet another legend from the “Manuscripts of Leyriath”, which can be musically experienced through repertoire from Renaissance Iberia, as well as listened in a storytelling style by the end of the album. “The Song of Lumino” tells of companionship, magic, beauty and most importantly, power of music; what it can bring, as much as take away.

Read the story related to the album here

TWB Ensemble’s 4th album, released on the 800th year celebration of the birth of King Alfonso X El Sabio, brings the audience to medieval times with Cantigas de Santa Maria which are attributed to the king himself. At the end of the album a musical narrative is presented, inviting the audience to imagine through this music.

Read the story related to the album here

Gallery

Contact for versions/sizes suitable for publications.

Education

Academic Achievements

Ricardo has studied with the most renowned classical guitarists, some of which are Duo Melis, Zoran Dukic, and Margarita Escarpa. He received the Matricula de Honor, the maximum qualification in the bachelor degree of classical guitar from Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Vigo (Spain). He also holds a master degree in classical guitar and artistic research from the Royal Conservatory The Hague (The Netherlands), where he had done his thesis on “The Dream World, Artistic Research: Creation of a Musical Narrative Based on Classical Guitar Repertoire; Search for a Shared Fulfilling Experience Between Performer and Audience.” under the conservatory’s Excellency Scholarship.

He has travelled to Spain, Italy, France, Germany, United Kingdom and The Netherlands among many other countries to pursuit the best education on his instrument, and won 12 awards for his performances with classical guitar in Europe-wide various international competitions; via Erasmus Exchange Programs he has received masterclasses from more than 30 worldwide active classical guitarists, he has teached in Istanbul University State Conservatory, and have received GDA Research Fund for his further studies.

 

Video gallery

Earlier
Works

The Myth of Arion is a musical narrative written by Ricardo. The pieces were composed for renaissance vihuela by Luis de Narvaez (1526-49) & Alonso Mudarra (1510-80), and transcribed directly from the historical tablature prints into the classical guitar by Ricardo.

The footage was shot during Spring 2018 in Pinhal de Leiria that had had a large fire a year before; the contrast between the long lost burned trees and the newly born bushes and flowers were the nature’s way of manifesting loss, hope and rebirth, connected to the musical narrative told in the presentation in a number of ways.

Video was directed, shot, and edited by Esin Yardimli Alves Pereira on 2018.