Bernardo Sassetti

Bernardo da Costa Sassetti Pais (born June 24, 1970 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese pianist whose career started in 1987. Since then he has completed many projects and he is recognized by playing his jazz music and performing in many duets with some well-known celebrities, in many countries, and some of them participated in Sassetti’s albums. His passion on classic music started when he was nine, then all of a sudden he knew he wanted to learn how to play classic piano. In order to learn how to play piano he went to a professional school called “Academia dos Amadores de Música” and also had the opportunity to improve his skills and became an expert. He dedicates himself deeply into jazz music but he has “other passions”. It is confirmed that he is notorious for being skillful. He writes music for the cinema and he is a photographer, although he hasn’t yet become an expert on that matter. He continues to play his music at some local clubs and at innumerable festivals and obviously the crucial element of Sassetti’s music is absolutely the jazz music. It is well-known that in Portugal Jazz music isn’t valued like it is in America; jazz has a long path to go through. However, at 37 year-old he already has released many albums. His first album was released in April 94. Since then he has been recording his work in Portuguese and in English. Recently, about four years ago, he has been on a project: producing some music for the cinema. Sassetti said in an interview what he has been doing and why he has been devoting himself into cinema’s music, “The cinema fascinates me. (…) I need the image, the colour and the face of the characters to compose the music”. His records: "Ao vivo no Guimarães jazz"; "Dundumbanza"; "Tibiri tabara"; "Impressões" and "Olhar"; "Passagem"; "What love is"; "Ecos de África"; "Sons do Brasil"; "Mundos"; "Fragments (Of Cinematic Illusion)"; "Entropé"; “4 Movimentos Soltos"; "Nocturno" "Indigo"; "Livre", “Ascent” "Unreal -sidewalk cartoon", were his latest solo music. Furthermore, he was also nominated for a The Mercury Awards in 1995. He wrote the music for the film Alice, and performed its piano parts. He is married to actress Beatriz Batarda. He is also a direct male line great-grandson of the President of Portugal Sidónio Pais.