Pirii Pimentel Rodrigues is a multidisciplinary artist born in the outskirts of Caparica, Portugal, and currently based in Lucerne, Switzerland, where she works as a freelance artist. Her practice unfolds at the intersection of music, the body, and interdisciplinary creation, drawing on influences from dance, visual arts, theatre, and performance. While her work embraces a wide range of artistic languages, the cello remains the central axis of her artistic research and expression.

Alongside her artistic practice, Pirii works as an educational workshop facilitator within the Musikvermittlung department of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and teaches cello at Musikschule Region Malters and Musikschule Luzern.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance, specialising in Orchestra and Pedagogy, from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, where she studied with Professor Susanne Müller-Hornbach. In 2024, she completed a Master’s degree in Interpretation in Contemporary Music at Hochschule Luzern – Musik, studying with Professor Erik Borgir, with a Minor in Improvisation under the guidance of Professor Charlotte Hug. Her master’s final concert, CORPUS, was awarded the ST.ART Nachwuchsförderpreis Kultur – Musik.

Throughout her early career, Pirii performed with several youth orchestras and received awards in chamber music competitions. Over time, however, her artistic interests increasingly shifted towards contemporary creation, collaboration, improvisation, and the development of new performative formats, moving beyond an approach centred exclusively on the classical repertoire.

A significant transformation in her artistic practice took place in 2022, following a series of pivotal personal experiences, including the theft of her cello and chest surgery. These events led her to investigate the body as a central element of performance, as well as to explore new sonic and physical possibilities of the cello. This research opened up new collaborations with dancers, choreographers, visual artists, and composers, and continues to shape her approach to performance today.

Pirii is the founder and a member of several artistic projects, including ONO Trio, Duo_tus, WEG Collective, Crumbles Ensemble, CROL, noef noef Atelier, Fluks Ensemble, and ZÕN. Through these projects, she explores contemporary music, performance, improvisation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovative formats for diverse audiences.

Her practice also includes work for young audiences, such as A Menina do Mar, presented at the Porto Cello Festival in 2024. Alongside collaborative projects, she develops solo works in which she constructs personal narratives through the interplay of sound, movement, and bodily presence, creating immersive and intimate experiences for audiences. Recent examples include CRIA.TUA, presented at Theater Basel and broadcast live on Radio X, as well as her performance at the Festival Internacional de Música de Marvão in collaboration with the artist Igor Sacharow-Ross.

More recently, her artistic practice has expanded through a collaboration with choreographer and set designer Adriana Carlota Berwert. In 2025, their piece O embalo received the Förderpreis Shortcuts Tanz in Olten and was subsequently invited for presentation at Tanzfest Winterthur. This recognition marked an important step in the development and visibility of Pirii’s work within the contemporary dance and interdisciplinary performance landscape.

Across her different projects and collaborations, Pirii’s practice is driven by an ongoing curiosity about the relationship between sound, movement, physical presence, and perception. The cello functions not only as a musical instrument, but also as a physical and performative partner through which she investigates new forms of expression, communication, and audience experience.