Pedro Melo Alves is one of the most unsettled new minds in Portugal, avid for something more, yet unknown.
Drummer and composer dedicated to the modern tendencies of written and improvised music, his work is known for the exploratory attitude and for boldy intersectioning different aesthetic circuits.
Having been awarded with the Bernardo Sassetti composition award in 2016, distinguished as the National Musician of the Year in 2017 by jazz.pt and in 2019 with the Premio Internazionale Giorgio Gaslini he’s been increasingly present in the European music scene, presenting his projects in events such as 12 Points Festival (Dublin, 2018), European Jazz Conference (Lisboa, 2018), Suoni Per Il Popolo (Montreal, 2019), Südtirol Jazz Festival (Bolzano, 2019) or Jazzahead (Bremen, 2019).
Born in 1991, in Porto, Portugal, Pedro starts studying music in 2000. Enrolls at the Jazz Drums superior course in 2011 at the Porto Superior School of Music (ESMAE), having lessons with Michael Lauren and Carlos Azevedo, and leaves the course in 2013 to study classical and jazz piano with Abe Rabade and Daniel Bernardes. The participation on several workshops in Portugal, Spain and Italy led him to meet and study with some of the contemporary jazz scene figures, such as Danilo Perez, John Escreet and Ralph Alessi. Enters in 2015 on the Musical Composition superior course at the Lisbon Superior School of Music (ESML), where he studies with Sérgio Azevedo, José Luís Ferreira and António Pinho Vargas.

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