The Vianna da Motta International Music Competition was first constituted in 1957 in Lisbon in honor of José Vianna da Motta by his disciple Sequeira Costa, who remains its president; this inaugural edition was won by Naum Shtarkman. The competition, a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions, has been held regularly since 1964.
While mainly a piano competition, two violin editions have been held. In 1973 Ida Kavafian and Gerardo Ribeiro shared the 1st prize. In 1991 it was declared void; Graf Mourja and Rachel Varga were awarded, respectively, the 2nd and 3rd prizes.
| 1957 | Naum Shtarkman, USSR | Gleb Axelrod, USSR | Miłosz Magin, Poland | |
| 1964 | Nelson Freire, Brazil Vladimir Krainev, USSR | Sérgio Varela Cid, Portugal | Igor Khudoley, USSR | |
| 1966 | Not awarded | Albert Atenelle, Spain John Owings, USA | Cecilio Tieles, Cuba | |
| 1968 | Farhad Badalbeyli, USSR Viktoria Postnikova, USSR | Not awarded | Georges Pludermacher, France | |
| 1971 | Not awarded | Roland Keller, Germany | Emanuel Ax, USA | |
| 1975 | Teofils Biķis, USSR William DeVan, USA | Not awarded | Rusudan Khuntsaria, USSR | |
| 1979 | Arutyun Papazyan, USSR | Vagui Papian, USSR | Andreas Pistorious, East Germany | |
| 1983 | Not awarded | Florent Boffard, France Pedro Burmester, Portugal | Suzanne Grützmann, East Germany | |
| 1987 | Artur Pizarro, Portugal | Elisso Bolkvadze, USSR | Ian Munro, Australia | |
| 1991 | Not awarded | Igor Kamenz, Germany | Not awarded | |
| 1997 | Tao Chang, Hong Kong | Jill Lawson, Portugal | Maria Rostotsky, Sweden Christian Seibert, Germany | |
| 1999 | Amir Tebenikhin, Kazakhstan | Richard Raymond, Canada | Pyotr Dmitriev, Russia | |
| 2001 | Not awarded | Nami Ejiri, Japan | Javier Perianes, Spain | |
| 2004 | Not awarded | Eleonora Karpukhova, Russia | Olga Monakh, Ukraine | |
| 2007 | Not awarded | Dmytro Onyschenko, Ukraine Yung Wook Yoo, South Korea | Not awarded | |
| 2010 | Lilian Akopova, Armenia | Ilya Rashkovsky, Russia | Mikhail Shilyaev, Russia |