Biography
SalomãoSoares
Pianist and composer from Paraíba, Brazil. From village dances in Brazil’s Northeast to stages on four continents.
- 2017Montreux Jazz Piano
Competition, finalist - 2017MIMO Instrumental
Award - 2025Latin Grammy
with the Hamilton de Holanda Trio - 2026Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
with Hamilton de Holanda
In brief
Salomão Soares is a Brazilian pianist and composer, born in Cruz do Espírito Santo, a small town in Paraíba, in Brazil’s Northeast, where he started out playing at village dances. He won the MIMO Instrumental Award and was a finalist at the Montreux Jazz Piano Competition, both in 2017. He has released nine albums of his own, including Interior (solo piano), Espirais (trio) and three duo albums with Vanessa Moreno. Since 2021 he has been a member of the Hamilton de Holanda Trio, with whom he won the 2025 Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz/Jazz Album, and he has performed in 28 countries on four continents.
Press bio and high-res photosVillage dances in rural Paraíba.
His first school was home, in Cruz do Espírito Santo: his father on percussion, his mother on guitar and, all the time, the music of Sivuca, Dominguinhos and Luiz Gonzaga.
As a child, he started on keyboard, playing at local dances — long before any formal piano lessons. That is how, by ear, the rhythmic instinct that defines his piano today took shape.
At 14, on a Christmas night in João Pessoa, he was invited to play a few songs at a concert that Sivuca would close on his own. He never forgot Sivuca’s “Silent Night” on solo accordion. As they left the stage, his father asked for a photo, and Sivuca eagerly posed with the two of them.
From the Northeast to jazz.
At 15, when his whole world was still forró, he went to study piano with Helinho Medeiros in João Pessoa. Through him, he discovered a world he hadn’t known: jazz.
Helinho taught him music theory and bossa nova, gave him records he had never heard and introduced him to Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Egberto Gismonti and, above all, Hermeto Pascoal — a Northeastern sound Salomão couldn’t yet decode.
“It changed my life.”
Salomão Soares, on hearing Hermeto Pascoal
Around the same time, he began playing in dance bands. Between 2008 and 2011, he worked as a pianist on cruise ships around South America. In 2011, he moved to São Paulo with a clear goal: to study with André Marques, Hermeto Pascoal’s pianist, at the Tatuí Conservatory. The lessons lasted about a year and a half.
Meanwhile, he played in São Paulo’s nightlife circuit and in instrumental groups in both cities. These were decisive years: there he established himself as a pianist and began to dig deeper into composition.
From jazz he took improvisation and freedom of form, without leaving Brazilian rhythm behind. Out of that combination came a language that crosses Brazilian piano with contemporary jazz.
From Olinda to Lincoln Center.
Throughout his career, he has shared the stage with names such as Toninho Horta, João Bosco and Leny Andrade — and with Hermeto Pascoal, who remains his greatest influence and a constant source of inspiration.
In 2017, he took home the MIMO Instrumental Award and reached the final of the Montreux Jazz Piano Competition, in Switzerland. His solo concert at that year’s MIMO, at the Igreja do Carmo in Olinda, held special meaning: it was the first time since he left home that his parents had seen him perform in concert.
In 2018, he was named New Talent at the Savassi Festival in Belo Horizonte. At Sesc Jazz, one of Latin America’s most prestigious festivals, he performed with his trio and as a guest of Hermeto Pascoal.
In 2022, at the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo, he shared the stage with André Mehmari, Hercules Gomes and Tiago Costa in Rosa dos Ventos: four pianos, 352 keys and music written for the project. The concert came back in 2023 at Sesc Belenzinho.
Since 2021, he has been a member of the Hamilton de Holanda Trio, with whom he won the 2025 Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz/Jazz Album for Live in NYC, recorded live at Jazz at Lincoln Center, in New York, featuring saxophonist Chris Potter. At the same venue, in 2026, he made a special guest appearance with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, alongside Hamilton de Holanda; he also made a guest appearance with Snarky Puppy in Alberobello, Italy.
Collaborations
- On record
- Chico César · Chris Potter · Cícero Lee · Guegué Medeiros · Hamilton de Holanda · Hermeto Pascoal · Mônica Salmaso · Paulinho da Costa · Renato Braz · Seamus Blake · Stephanie Borgani · Tatiana Parra · Toninho Ferragutti · Vanessa Moreno
- On stage
- Anastácia · André Mehmari · Camille Bertault · Hercules Gomes · Hermeto Pascoal · Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra · João Bosco · Leny Andrade · Nenê · Snarky Puppy · Tiago Costa · Toninho Horta · Vinicius Dorin
“The piano’s place, for me, is a place of resistance.”
Salomão Soares · Dedos de Prosa, Rádio Cultura Brasil, 2024
Nine albums, a studio in the woods and an empty theater.
Most of the albums were born at Gargolândia, a studio immersed in nature in the São Paulo countryside.
It was there that the duo with Vanessa Moreno began, with no plan at all. Salomão had gone to record another project and was soundchecking the piano when Vanessa, who happened to be at the studio too, walked into the room. He asked her to sing something, and she chose a song by Edu Lobo. Rafael Altério, the studio’s owner, came in right then. When they finished, he told them they had to record “what I just heard here” and that the album would be his gift to them. That is how Chão de Flutuar (2019) was born; the other two duo albums followed.
Out of it also came Baião de Dois, with Guegué Medeiros, and the trio album Espirais, recorded over two days in November 2022.
The solo album was different: Interior was recorded on an April afternoon in 2022, alone on the stage of Theatro Pedro II, in Ribeirão Preto, with the house empty. It is, in his words, “the record that tells my story so far” — and one he toured across Europe.
The first three were the duo album with accordionist Toninho Ferragutti (2017); Alegria de Matuto (2018), his debut as a leader, a quartet record with Hermeto Pascoal on melodica; and the trio album Colorido Urbano (2019). The most recent is Outros Ventos (2025), his third duo album with Vanessa Moreno, with Chico César as a guest; named by Billboard Brasil one of the best Brazilian albums of 2025, it was also released on CD in Japan.
Tradition in motion.
Salomão’s music sets out from Brazilian popular culture — and doesn’t stand still there.
The thread running through all of his work is bringing to the piano the Northeastern music he grew up with; the solo album Interior takes that idea to its limit.
“Like a photograph of the moment I’m living.”
Salomão Soares, on composing
With the Hamilton de Holanda Trio, he released the studio album NOVA (Sony Music) in 2026, with pieces he co-wrote such as “Até amanhã” and “Mono no aware”, the latter available here as a free score.
Besides Hamilton’s trio, he tours with five lineups of his own: solo piano, trio, a duo with Vanessa Moreno, Baião de Dois and the quintet of his tribute to João Donato, which gave rise to the album ...e Muito Mais, now in production.
In duo with Vanessa Moreno, he played Billboard Live in Yokohama, Japan, in 2025, and the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, in South Africa, in 2026.
Alongside performing, he teaches: he runs Escola Salomão Soares, an online school devoted to Brazilian popular piano — rhythm, chord reading, harmony, reharmonization and improvisation. Classes are in Portuguese, with English subtitles.
What they say
“Sometimes I’d arrive to teach and he was already in the room practicing. I’d just listen: those chords — where did he get them? He came in far ahead. So much so that I told him: Salomão, I think you’re done here — you’re already covering the whole conservatory syllabus, you can go.”
André Marques · Hermeto Pascoal’s pianist · his teacher in Tatuí
“It’s a different musical approach… that’s the richness of someone who knows, who has something to say.”
Amilton Godoy · pianist
“Salomão Soares brings more depth and elegance to Brazilian piano.”
Katsuaki Hanada · e-magazine LATINA · Japan
“Salomão is a genius, of monumental sensitivity. I’m a fervent fan of his!”
Guilherme Arantes · singer-songwriter