José Feghali was a Brazilian pianist, born on March 28, 1961. He made his first appearance with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra at the age of eight. At 15, he went to London to study with Maria Curcio, then studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Christopher Elton.
In 1985, Feghali won the seventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in the United States. His performances during that period also drew criticism. He gave more than 1,000 concerts and performed with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Spanish National Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and the Beijing Symphony Orchestra. He worked with conductors including Kurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach, Yuri Temirkanov, and Leonard Slatkin.
Feghali was an artist-in-residence at Texas Christian University and taught in Fort Worth, Texas. He died by suicide on December 9, 2014, amid prolonged depression and a gradual decline in his career. His body was found that day.