Cláudio Franco de Sá Santoro (23 November 1919 – 27 March 1989) was an internationally renowned
Brazilian composer, conductor and
violinist.
Biography
Early life
A native of
Manaus
Manaus () is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is the seventh-largest city in Brazil, with an estimated 2020 population of 2,219,580 distributed over a land area of about . Located at the east center of the s ...
, the capital of
Amazonas, Santoro started to study
violin and
piano as a child. His efforts made the Government of
Amazonas send him to study at the
Conservatório Brasileiro de Música in
Rio de Janeiro.
Career
At the age of 18, he was already teaching
violin at the conservatory. He was a pupil of
Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, a composer who influenced him. He also studied in Paris with
Nadia Boulanger. He co-founded and played in the
Brazilian Symphony Orchestra
The Brazilian Symphony Orchestra ( pt, Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, OSB) is a Brazilian orchestra. Founded in 1940, it is located at Avenida Rio Branco, downtown Rio de Janeiro. It is one of the country's foremost orchestras, performing mor ...
. His prolific output was mostly instrumental and includes fourteen symphonies, three
piano concerto
A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpiec ...
s and seven
string quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
s.
He was invited by the Government of the German Federal Republic for the Program "Resident Artist in West Berlin" (1966/67) and by the Brahms Foundation as Resident Artist of the Brahms House (Baden Baden).
Claudio Santoro died in
Brasília in March 1989 at the age of 69 while conducting the rehearsal of a concert scheduled to commemorate the 14 July bicentennial of the
French Revolution.
Awards
He won a 1948 prize of The Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund at the
University of Massachusetts, in
Boston (the judges included the composers
Igor Stravinski and
Aaron Copland).
Posts
His positions, titles and activities include being founder and principal of the Chamber Orchestras of Radio MEC and the University of Brasília, the Symphonic Orchestra of the Radio Club of Brazil and the National Theater of Brasília; titular, Coordinating professor for of the Music Department of the University of Brasília; President of the Brasília Section of the Order of the Musicians of Brazil; Musical Director of the Cultural Foundation of the Federal District; member of the Managing Council of the Inter-American Music Council; organizer and director of the Center of Diffusion and Information for the music of Latin America together with the Institute of Comparative Studies of Music and Documentation (former West-Berlin); Member of the Brazilian Academy of Music, the Brazilian Academy of Arts and the Academy of Music and Letters of Brazil, of which he was President.
Between 1970 and 1978 he was Professor of Conducting and Composition, Director of the Orchestra and the Music Department of Heidelberg-Mannheim's State Superior Music School, in Germany. Orchestras he guest-conducted include the Philharmonic of Leningrad, Moscow State Orchestra, RIAS Berlin, ORTF Paris, OSSODRE Montevideo, Beethovenhalle Bonn, Symphonic of the Radio of Prague, Philharmonic of Bucharest, Symphonic of Orchestra of Porto, Philharmonic of Sofia, PRO ART (London) Île de France (Paris), Symphonic of the Leipzig Radio, Symphonic of Magdeburg, Philharmonic of Warsaw, as well as the main Brazilian orchestras.
References
Sources
*
External links
''Associação Cultural'' extensively detailed website dedicated to the life and work of Cláudio Santoro (in English)*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santoro, Claudio
1919 births
People from Manaus
20th-century classical composers
Brazilian composers
Brazilian film score composers
Male film score composers
1989 deaths
20th-century male musicians