Graduated in Organ by the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa and by the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón in Zaragoza, João Vaz also holds a doctorate in Music and Musicology from the University of Évora, having defended a thesis on late-eighteenth-century Portuguese organ music. He has maintained an intense activity at an international level, either as a concert player or as a teacher in performance courses, or as a member of the jury of organ competitions. He made more than a dozen solo recordings, notably those made in Portuguese historic organs. He teaches Organ at Escola Superior de Música in Lisbon and is the artistic director of the Madeira Internacional Organ Festival and the Mafra Internacional Organ Festival, as well of the series of concerts that take place on the historic organ of São Vicente de Fora, in Lisbon (instrument whose titularity he assumed in 1997) and on six organs of the Basilica of the National Palace of Mafra (of which restoration he was a permanent adviser). In 2017, he was awarded the Medal of Honour from the Municipality of Mafra.
