Sequeira Costa is a legend among pianists. In 1951 he was honoured with the Grand Prix de Paris at the Marguerite Long International Competition. Since receiving that momentous honour, he has played an important role in music history in our time. Shostakovich invited Sequeira Costa to join a distinguished body of jurors which included Sviastoslav Richter, Dimitri Kabalevsky, Aran Khachaturian and Emil Gilels for the First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. As the youngest member of this prestigious jury, he was only a few years older than Van Cliburn, the winner of the competition.

Sequeira Costa belongs to an almost forgotten generation of artists representing the great romantic traditions of the 19th Century.