Alvaro Pierri was born 1952 in Montevideo, Uruguay, in a family of musicians. He received his early musical education from his mother, Ada Estades, on the paino and his aunt, Olga Pierri, on the guitar. He continued his later studies with Abel Carlevaro, the composer Guido Santorsola at the Uruguayan National Institute of Musicology.

At the age of only 11 he was already winning prizes in international guitar competitions, including 1st Prize in the International Guitar Competition in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1st Prize in the International Guitar Competition in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the Gold Medal at the 18th International Competition by France Musique/Radio France in Paris.

He made his debut in New York, USA, and received outstanding reviews: ... ”Mr. Pierri revealed an artistic maturity not commonly encountered” ... ”compared to artists as Segovia, Bream, Williams” ... ”brilliant, sensitive, versatile, breathtaking” (New York Times & Continental Reviews). In 1983 he made his debut in Germany with the string soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and he subsequently appeared on numerous radio and television programmes produced by the German, Spanish, French, Canadian and Japanese Radios.

As a musician popular with both the public and the critics, Alvaro Pierri is a regular guest at the major concert houses of Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Many contemporary composers such as Leo Brouwer, Guido Santorsola, Jacques Hétu, Astor Piazzolla, Abel Carlevaro, Carlo Domeniconi and Terry Riley have written major works for him, which he has premiered brilliantly.

His constant love of chamber music has resulted in collaborations with major musical figures including Astor Piazzolla, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Ernö Sebestien, Regis Pasquier, Hatto Beyerle, Philippe Müller, Leo Brouwer, Alcides Lanza, Terry Riley, Tracy Silverman, Maureen Forrester, Eduardo Fernandez, the Cherubini Quartet and the Turtle Island String Quartet, and he has also worked with conductors such as Pinchas Steinberg, Charles Dutoit, Wojciech Rajski, Mario Bernardi and Yannick Nezet-Seguin.

Alvaro Pierri′s CDs have been released by Metropole-Polydor (France), Blue Angel-2001 (Germany), Milan Records und Analekta (Canada) and HOMA (Japan). His discography includes solo recordings, chamber music, guitar concerts and electro-acoustic music. Several of his CDs have been nominated on different occasions for the coveted Canadian FELIX award for the best classical CD of the year, which he has won twice.

He is also an internationally acclaimed teacher. Many of his students have won major international guitar competitions. He was a lecturer at the University of Santa Maria in Brazil and subsequently ran a guitar class at McGill University and the UQAM (Academy of Music) in Montreal. 2002 he was appointed professor at the famous Academy of music in Vienna (today University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna).

Pierri frequently gives master classes at major music festivals such as the New York Manhattan Masters, GFA Guitar Foundation of America, Québec FIG, the SIG Séminaire International de Guitare in Paris and Bordeaux, in Barcelona, at the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, the Wiener Meisterkurse, the Villa Musica in Mainz, and in Tokyo, Osaka, and Hong Kong a. o.