Nuno Côrte-Real has come to be seen as one of the most important Portuguese composers and conductors currently active.  Amongst his significant premières are 7 Dances to the death of the harpist in the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Pequenas músicas de mar in the Purcell Room in London, Concerto Vedras at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in New York, Novíssimo Cancioneiro at the Siglufirdi Festival in Rejkiavik and Andarilhos – música de bailado at Casa da Música in Oporto. The ensembles that have performed his music include the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, São Carlos National Theatre Choir, Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir, Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon, Remix Ensemble, Royal Scottish Academy Brass, Orchestrutopica, and solists and conductors such as Lawrence Renes, Julia Jones, Stefan Asbury, Ilan Volkov, Kaasper de Roo, Cristoph Konig, David Alan Miller, Paul Crossley, John Wallace, Mats Lidström, Paulo Lourenço and Cesário Costa.

Recordings of his music include Portuguese traditional songs on the Portugal Som and Numérica labels, Pequenas Músicas de Mar on Deux-Elles, the ballet Andarilhos on Numérica in coproduction with the Casa da Música, and Largo Intimíssimo on the Austrian label Classic Concert Records. In 2012, Nuno Côrte-Real released the CD VOLUPIA, the first monographic disc with his chamber music, and in 2016 he artistically directed the CD Mirror of the Soul, for Ordradek Records, with Ensemble Darcos.

In the field of opera and theatre, Côrte-Real has worked with Michael Hampe, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Maria Emília Correia, Victor Hugo Pontes, André Teodósio, João Henriques, Rui Lopes Graça, Paulo Matos and Margarida Bettencourt. In June and September 2007 his chamber operas A Montanha and O Rapaz de Bronze were given, with great success, at the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Casa da Música, respectively. For São Carlos National Theatre he created in 2009 the “intermezzo” O Velório de Cáudio, to a libretto by the acclaimed Portuguese writer José Luís Peixoto, and premiered, in March 2011, the opera Banksters, to a libretto by Vasco Graça Moura and with staging by João Botelho, a production which was uniquely successful in the recent history of Portuguese contemporary music. In November 2018, conducted and premiered his last opera Canção do Bandido, at Teatro da Trindade, in Lisbon, with libretto by Pedro Mexia and staging by Ricardo Neves-Neves, with the São Carlos National Theater Choir and Symphony Orchestra.

As a conductor, Nuno Côrte-Real has worked with Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi, Orquesta Sinfónica Castilla Y León, Portuguese National Symphonic Orchestra and Choir, Orquesta Ciudad Granada, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Orquesta de Extremadura, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, Orquestra do Algarve, Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, Orchestrutopica, Camerata du Rhône (Lyon) and Ensemble Darcos. In June 2015 made is debut at the symphonic hall of Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, Spain and, in October 2018, at the Auditorio Verdi, in Milan.

He is the founder and artistic director of the Ensemble Darcos, a chamber group dedicated to the performance of his own music and that of the great European repertoire, and the artistic director of Temporada Darcos.

He has collaborated with several international music festivals, among others, Sintra, Estoril and Póvoa de Varzim, and conducted soloists such as Elizabete Matos, Artur Pizarro, Massimo Spadano, Nicola Ulivieri, Ana Quintans, Alexey Sychev, Filipe Pinto Ribeiro, Adriano Jordão, Giulio Plotino, Filipe Quaresma and Luís Rodrigues, among others. He was a fellow of Centro Nacional de Cultura from 1999 until 2001, and in 2003, was awarded with the medal of Cultural Merit distinction of Torres Vedras City Hall.

With the song cycle Agora Muda Tudo, won the “Best Classical Music Work” cathegory at the SPAUTORES 2018 awards.