João Rival is a Brazilian harpsichord player. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in harpsichord from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) where he studied with Marcelo Fagerlande. João has had the chance to extend his knowledge with notorious harpsichordists such as Elisabeth Joyé, Olivier Baumont, Nicolau de Figueiredo, Patrick Ayrton and Jaques Ogg. He was awarded lessons with Huguete Dreyfus during the Académie Musicale deVillecroze (France), 2006.

In September of 2008 he was admitted as a student of Jacques Ogg at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (The Netherlands), receiving his Bachelor degree in 2012 and Master degree in 2014, narrowing down his studies in French harpsichord transcriptions from orchestral works of Marais and Rameau. In 2010 he attended L’académie Baroque Européene d’Ambronay as a continuo player for an adaptation of Rameau’s opera Les Indes Galantes under the leading of Hervé Niquet.

In May 2014, João had the great opportunity to work for Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes in a co-production of The Royal Conservatory and the orchestra of the 18th century under the leading of Frans Bruggen. Also in the same year, he created the ensemble Le concert d’Apollon, specialized in French orchestral baroque music.

João Rival is currently doing his PhD at the Orpheus Instituut Gent via Leiden University under the coaching of Jed Wentz and Graham Sadler.