BIO (english)

Telmo Pires was born in Bragança, Portugal, but moved to Germany at the age of two. He fell in love with his roots at an early age and felt a special connection with traditional Portuguese music, especially fado. After having taken singing and acting classes, he participated in various theatre productions. His solo career began with a collaboration with a pianist from the “Kleines Theater” in Essen, where he was living at the time. Their repertoire consisted of French, German and English songs, as well as fado adaptations.

In 2001, he released his first album, “Chansons-Fado-Lieder”, a self-produced compilation of these three music styles. After moving to Berlin, he formed a “world music” band with a group of German jazz musicians.
In 2004, he signed up with the Berlin-based German jazz label “Traumton Records”, with whom he released his first Portuguese album, “Passos”. He wrote six out of its twelve tracks, thus revealing his talent as an author and composer.

A second album, “Sinal”, followed in 2009. It was the product of his collaboration with the acclaimed German jazz pianist Maria Baptist, who had immediately been won over by Telmo’s passion for spreading his birth country’s culture, music and language to the public despite the fact that he lived in Germany. RTP, the Portuguese public TV and radio service, broadcast their debut concert from Berlin.
In 2011, Telmo began collaborating with the Lisbon-based musician and producer Davide
Zaccaria. The album “Fado Promessa” was released in 2012 and gave rise to a series of concerts
in Portugal and several European countries.
In 2014, Telmo received the first of several invitations to play at the “Museu do Fado” in Lisbon. With his 2016 album, “Ser Fado”, he struck a balance between traditional fado, new poems and previously unreleased songs. With the help of his brother Jaime Ribeiro, António Variações provided the artist with his song “Ao passar por Braga abaixo” for this album.
Telmo’s latest work, “Através do Fado”, was released in February 2020 after an eight-concert
tour of Germany, during which he played at one of the world’s most emblematic music halls, the “Berliner Philharmonie”. He was invited to perform there again in 2022.
In 2023, the “Museu do Fado” asked him to play for the first time at the “Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB)” in Lisbon. That same year, he began working with producer and composer Tiago Machado. The duo created the EP “Fado Variações”, which will be released in March 2025.