Paulo Sérgio Guimarães Álvares, also known as Paulo Álvares, born in 1960 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is a pianist known for his work in contemporary and improvised music. He studied piano under Caio Pagano in São Paulo and later with Steven de Groote in Texas from 1985 to 1987. In 1988, Álvares moved to Cologne, Germany, on a DAAD scholarship to study under Aloys Kontarsky. He received the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis in 1990. Throughout the 1990s, he conducted research at the Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique in Paris. In 1997, Álvares became a lecturer for improvisation, piano, and song accompaniment-improvisation at the Cologne University of Music. He has performed as a soloist and collaborated with various ensembles, including the WDR Rundfunk-Orchester and musikFabrik. Álvares founded the Ensemble for Improvisation and aleatoric music (EIAM) in 1999.
