De Almeida began conducting for Portuguese Radio in
Lisbon in 1949, and soon after was appointed to his first conducting post at the Oporto Symphony Orchestra. While there, he invited
Sir Thomas Beecham to guest conduct the orchestra. He was the conductor of the Portuguese Radio in Lisbon (1957–1960) and
Stuttgart Philharmonic (1962–1964). He gave the Paris premiere of
Il Trittico at the
Opéra-Comique in 1964, and worked at the
Opéra National de Paris from 1965 to 1967. He was principal guest conductor of the
Houston Symphony (1969–1971) and then music director of the
Orchestre philharmonique de Nice (1971–1978). He gave the Argentinian premiere of
Mahler's 7th Symphony in Buenos Aires. He became the music director of the
Moscow Symphony Orchestra in 1993, a position he held at his death. In 1960, De Almeida made his American debut with the opening of the eighth subscription season of New York's
American Opera Society at
The Town Hall. He led the
Symphony of the Air in a concert version of
Christoph Willibald Gluck's
Orfeo ed Euridice. New York Times reviewer
Harold C. Schonberg wrote of the conductor "He knows his business. Cool, not flamboyant of gesture, capable, he held the performance together as nicely as one would desire". He also wrote that "Mr. de Almeida is a conductor to watch". In the UK he conducted
Idomeneo with the
English Bach Festival in 1990. ==Recording==