Renato Diz is a Portuguese Transdisciplinary Auteur based in New York and Miami. He is also the Founder, CEO, and Recording Artist at W&J Productions.

Born in Porto, Portugal, he studied classical piano exclusively for 12 years under the tutelage of Dr. Rui Pintão at Conservatório Superior de Música de Gaia.

A chance encounter with jazz at a concert by pianist and composer Carlos Azevedo introduced him to the world of improvised music, and he decided to pursue his studies in this art. In 2004, he became a private student of Carlos Azevedo, and in 2006, he was accepted into the leading jazz program on the Iberian Peninsula for a Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Performance at ESMAE - P. Porto. His primary teachers were Michael Lauren and Abe Rábade in jazz, Sofia Lourenço, and José Parra in classical piano. Also, during the same period, he had private lessons with the acclaimed pianist Mário Laginha.

During these years in Portugal, he worked throughout the country with several projects and collaborations with other artists, namely Triptico with local legends Alberto Jorge and Acácio Salero, with whom he toured extensively, and the experimental project IALASPI. In 2009, he co-wrote and recorded the soundtrack for the documentary Memórias De Um Lugar, which was awarded Official Selection at Curtas Vila do Conde Festival. In 2010, he won the International Art Projects Competition of the Fundação Serralves with his multimedia project “Poema Visual Em Forma De Concerto A Partir Do Conto - O Fascínio Do Pequeno Lago - De Virginia Woolf,” with which he held an artistic residency at the Serralves em Festa Festival.

In 2011 he moved to New York to pursue a Master of Music in Instrumental Performance at the prestigious New York University, becoming the first Portuguese graduate in the history of the program, from which he graduated Summa Cum Laude. His mentors were Ralph Alessi, Jean-Michel Pilc, Bruce Arnold, Tony Moreno, and Andy Milne in jazz, and Marilyn Nonken and José Ramón Mendez in classical/postmodern piano. During this period, he received a scholarship from New York University for Extraordinary Performance, a scholarship from the Ella Fitzgerald Foundation for Unique Performance in the Area of Improvised Music, and a Leake & Watts Citizenship Award for Artistic Contributions to the American Society. He was also an Adjunct Professor in the Jazz and Piano Studies departments at New York University.

In 2013, he began a duo collaboration with saxophonist Zulfugar Baghirov, a modern and innovative interpretation for the duo of selected symphonic works by Azeri/Soviet composers Qara Qarayev, Zakir Baghirov, Faradj Qarayev, and Uzeyir Hajibayov. Sponsored entirely by the Karabakh Foundation, the album “QaraBag” was engineered by Joseph Patrych and mixed/mastered by multi-Grammy-Award Winner Silas Brown. “QaraBag” was released in 2014; its first physical edition sold out in just two weeks, and it holds 14 uncanny 5-star reviews on Amazon.

In 2014, his collaboration with New York Times artist André da Loba, an animated short film entitled “Tuttodunpezzo,” for which he composed/recorded/produced the soundtrack, was awarded the Gold Medal by the Society of Illustrators, the most prestigious organization in this area. Later in the same year, he founded the New York-based label W&J Productions, which became a platform for his multidisciplinary creations.

In 2015, his project “I Will Play Your Soul” was selected from 26,000 entries worldwide to be presented at the IdeasCity Festival at New Museum NYC. After this opportunity, the project was sponsored by ARTE Institute and presented at the Portuguese Embassy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Portuguese Consulate in San Francisco, CA; and the Consulate General of Portugal in New Bedford, MA. Also, in the same year, he recorded the first album of the duo project Renato Diz | Maria Quintanilla at Daniel Lee Music Hall in Los Angeles, with multi-Estonian Music Awards-winning engineer José Diogo Neves, entitled “Distance Chemistry” (on W&J Productions). This album, composed entirely of spontaneous compositions and improvised arrangements of timeless classics, was recorded live without cuts, edits, or physical separation between the musicians.

At the beginning of 2016, he recorded two ground-breaking albums as composer, producer, and pianist, with entirely different instrumentations and aesthetics: “EARPRINTS” (on W&J Productions), an experimental electric fusion trio with French virtuosos Louis de Mieulle and Raphaël Pannier, and “Poetics of Sight” (on W&J Productions) an acoustic avant-garde trio with Portuguese legends Sérgio Tavares and Jorge Queijo, deeply rooted in cinematic experiences and experimentation. In the summer of the same year, “Distance Chemistry” was released at a completely sold-out Rockwood Music Hall. Inspired by the project’s unique musical approach, award-winning movie director Pedro Marnoto Pereira invited the duo to create a short film inspired by their original composition “Conversation II” (meanwhile released online with thousands of views worldwide). Since its release, “Distance Chemistry” has sold thousands of copies and is now in its third edition. Later that year, Renato Diz | Maria Quintanilla invited Taiwanese percussionist Sayun Chang to create their new work. They collectively composed several works that crystallized the stories of aboriginal tribes and Taiwanese traditions; this work culminated in a recording of an extraordinary album at Tedesco Studios in New York entitled “Breathing Taiwan” (on W&J Productions). The work contained in this album is unparalleled in its techniques of composition, improvisation, and production approach (again by the hand of engineer José Diogo Neves and graphic design by Portuguese artist Marta Soutinho Alves). It has been considered one of the most inspiring musical creations of the last decades in Taiwan.

In 2017, he released “LAKE,” an animated short film with multi-award-winning Icelandic visual artist Sigrún Hreins. He was also a special guest of the project Sobre o Mar (with award-winning Angolan writer Ondjaki), with whom he toured through Canada and the United States. In the same year, he co-wrote, recorded, and produced the soundtrack for the documentary Vozes na Névoa along with Maria Quintanilla, directed by Pedro Marnoto Pereira. Also, in the same year, his duo with Maria Quintanilla was commissioned to create a unique work honoring the History of Portugal by the ARTE Institute, the Portuguese Embassy in the United States, and the Instituto Camões. This creation entitled “Portugal: Sonic Paths and Possibilities” contained compositions and original arrangements that explore the deepest origins of Portugal and its inevitable influence and ramifications throughout Africa, South America, and Asia. In this set of works, the two artists explored the voice and the piano, flute, percussion, acting, prepared piano, and vocal extended techniques. After the world premiere at Joe’s Pub NYC, they were invited to present this work at the Festival Portugal International de Montreal in Canada. This event has an average annual attendance of about 20,000 people.

In June 2018, he performed with his trio at one of the most iconic festivals in the world, the historic SummerStage, in the heart of Central Park in New York (where names such as Metallica, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and Bobby McFerrin also performed in previous years); on the same day, the Grammy-Award nominated Mariza performed presenting her new album. In October, he performed at Guimarães Cinema Som, the largest cinema and music festival in Europe, with a spontaneous piano soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece The Lodger. He also composed, performed, and recorded A Nation of Strangers, commissioned by New York-based dance company I KADA.

In 2019, he became the first Portuguese to perform at the prestigious Kinshasa Jazz Festival in the Democratic Republic of Congo, thanks to the support of the Portuguese Embassy in Kinshasa. In the same year, he composed, performed, and recorded The Beat Of Life, commissioned by New York-based dance company I KADA. In October, his multidisciplinary project “at a volume only you can hear” was selected among thousands of entries from all over the globe to be premiered at RHI_Think in Portugal, the first global festival of its kind uniting arts/sciences/networking/programmers.

In 2022, he began his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Instrumental Performance at the prestigious Frost School of Music - University of Miami, where he also serves as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Musicology.

In 2023, Renato released one of his most ambitious intermedia projects to date, ”Descriptions Of Useless Subtitles And Meaningful Sublimations,” (on W&J Productions) along with Austrian virtuoso Peter Traunmueller, Pedro Marnoto Pereira, and José Diogo Neves. This immersive project includes a digital book of collaborative artwork, poetry, and an album. It took six years to materialize fully, representing a complete departure from his previous projects.

Since moving to New York, he has participated in more than 30 albums (Guitar Sapiens, Moth To A Flame, On The Crosswalk, Under The Sun, and New Ground, to mention a few) and has also collaborated with world-renowned artists such as Beatriz Albuquerque (visual performer, collaborator of Marina Abramovich), Joana Ricou (visual artist), Pedro Maia (experimental filmmaker), Ricardo Lafuente (cyber programmer), Pedro Marnoto (filmmaker), Ondjaki (winner of the Saramago Literary Prize), Filipe Valle Costa (actor from the show Snowfall), Labrador (experimental visual artist) and Sigrún Hreins (virtual animator, collaborator of Björk).

As a pianist, he has already had the opportunity to perform in prestigious stages and festivals across Europe, Africa, North America, and South America, and shared the stage and the studio with some of the most essential artists in the music world such as Ari Hoenig, Ralph Alessi, Gerald Cleaver, Ohad Talmor, Alan Ferber, Miguel Zénon, Brad Shepik, Gilad Hekselman, Gabriel Alegria, Zulfugar Baghirov, Roy Hargrove, Matt Pavolka, Yuri Juárez, Bria Skonberg, Essiet Essiet, Melissa Aldana, Moto Fukushima, Carlos Barretto, Camille Thurman, Sam Minaie, Linda Briceño, Devin Collins, Louis de Mieulle, Freddy “Huevito” Lobatón, Tareq Rantisi, Victor Prieto, Steve Turre, Oscar Avillés, John Benitez, Sérgio Carolino, Franco Pinna, Yuka Tadano, Badal Roy, among many others.

Along with his music endeavors, he maintains an intense activity as a Transdisciplinary Auteur, developing works and concepts that interweave photography, video/cinema, poetry, philosophy, martial arts, drawing, and sound design/electronics.

(Detailed CV available upon request. Please use the contact form.)