Jorge Chaminé (born 30 April 1956) is a Portuguese operatic

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

Biography

Of Spanish and Portuguese parentage, Chaminé was born in

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

. He began his musical studies (piano, voice, cello, guitar, choral and orchestra conducting) at an early age. After studying law at

Coimbra University The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university is among the oldes ...

, he decided to become a singer and received a scholarship from the

Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One of the wealthiest charitable founda ...

to further his studies in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Paris,

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, and in New York City with personalities like

Lola Rodríguez Aragón Lola Rodríguez de Aragón (29 September 1910 – 30 April 1984) was a Spanish soprano singer, entrepreneur and music teacher. She founded "Escuela Superior de Canto" and taught music to several well known Spanish musicians. Early life and educ ...

Teresa Berganza Teresa Berganza Vargas OAXS (16 March 1933 – 13 May 2022) was a Spanish mezzo-soprano. She is most closely associated with roles such as Rossini's Rosina and La Cenerentola, and later Bizet's Carmen, admired for her technical virtuosity, mu ...

and

Hans Hotter Hans Hotter (19 January 19096 December 2003) was a German operatic bass-baritone. He stood and his appearance was striking. His voice and diction were equally recognisable. Early life and career Born in Offenbach am Main, Hesse, Hotter studied ...

. He made his

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

debut with

Seiji Ozawa was a Japanese conductor known internationally for his work as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and especially the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), where he served from 1973 for 29 years. After cond ...

and the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in ...

and has also performed with the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

, the

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra The Czech Philharmonic () is a symphony orchestra based in Prague. Its principal performing venue is the Rudolfinum concert hall. History The name "Czech Philharmonic Orchestra" appeared for the first time in 1894, as the title of the orche ...

, the

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (''Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin'') is a German symphony orchestra based in Berlin. In Berlin, the orchestra gives concerts at the Konzerthaus Berlin and at the Berliner Philharmonie. The orchestra has al ...

, and the Ensemble Intercontemporain among others. In 1988, he won the Menuhin Foundation Award which led him to perform internationally under the direction of

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin (22 April 191612 March 1999), was an American-born British violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. ...

. He has appeared with Claudio Scimone,

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (born Rafael Frühbeck; 15 September 1933 – 11 June 2014) was a Spanish conductor and composer. Frühbeck was born in Burgos, Spain to a family of German ancestry. He first took up conducting while on military serv ...

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...

Michel Corboz Michel Corboz (14 February 1934 – 2 September 2021) was a Swiss conductor. Life Corboz was born in Marsens, Switzerland, and educated in his native canton of Fribourg. He studied vocal performance and composition at the conservatory in Fribourg ...

, and Ros Marbà, and appeared in opera performances and concerts alongside

Mirella Freni Mirella Freni (born Mirella Fregni, 27February 19359February 2020) was an Italian operatic soprano who had a career of 50 years and appeared at major international opera houses. She received international attention at the Glyndebourne Festiva ...

Montserrat Caballé María de Montserrat Bibiana Concepción Caballé i Folch or Folc (12 April 1933 – 6 October 2018), also known as Montserrat Caballé (i Folch), was a Spanish operatic soprano from Catalonia. Widely considered to be one of the best sopranos ...

and

. He is equally at home in the English, French, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese languages and repertory. He is a regular performer of

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It h ...

s, gypsy songs,

fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado ...

and the songs of

Vinicius de Moraes Marcus Vinícius da Cruz e Mello Moraes (19 October 1913 – 9 July 1980), better known as Vinícius de Moraes () and nicknamed "O Poetinha" ("The Little Poet"), was a Brazilian poet, diplomat, lyricist, essayist, musician, singer, and playwrig ...

and Jobim—the music and languages of his own origins. He has recorded for Lyrinx,

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

Harmonia Mundi Harmonia Mundi is a record label that specializes in classical music, jazz, and world music (on the World Village label). It was founded in France in 1958 and is now a subsidiary of PIAS Entertainment Group, which is itself owned by Universal M ...

Naïve Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of experience and sophistication, often describing a neglect of pragmatism in favor of moral idealism. A ''naïve'' may ...

, ADDA, Sons Croisés/Exodos and BMG. Chaminé has won a number of honours, prizes and awards. He is frequently invited as a guest teacher and gives master classes in a number of music academies in Europe, US, Canada and Brazil. He is at the origin of a workshop Sons Croisés for musicians of all disciplines which is held regularly at the Spanish College in Paris (Colegio de España). More than 200 musicians from 47 countries worked with him in these Workshops. He is president-Artistic Director of the CIMA Festival in

Monte Argentario Monte Argentario is a ''comune'' (municipality) and a peninsula belonging to the Province of Grosseto in the Italian region Tuscany, located about south of Florence and about south of Grosseto. The peninsula is connected with the mainland by thr ...

, Tuscany. He is also vice-president of the

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', w ...

Association. He was nominated Music Ambassador of the organisation Music in ME (Music in Middle East) at the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

in May 2005. Since then he has also been a member of the board of directors of Music in ME International and president of Music in ME France. He created and is the Artistic Director of the Festival Ibériades and the Artistic Director of the Festival de Bougival. He received from Federico Mayor the Human Rights Medal of the

Unesco The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

. Lately, Jorge Chaminé became guest teacher of the

University of Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and the ...

(International Program), and with the sustain of the EU he created a project Music4Rom, for the recognition of the contribution of Rom music in the classical music. www.music4rom.com. He is a member of the board of directors of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation. Since 2015 he is the founder and president of the CEM https://cemusique.org. On 31 August 2018, Chaminé was nominated "Officier"

Ordre des Arts et Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order (distinction), order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Ministry of Culture (France), Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President of France, President Cha ...

of the French government.

Discography

*1988 ** ''Jean Schwarz – Vier Jahreszeiten'', Jorge Chaminé . INA 1004 *1991 ** ''Brahms – German Requiem'', Jorge Chaminé, Claudia Boettcher, Ivan Goran Kovacevic Choir, Bohemia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jiri Mikula. ADDA (live performance) ** '' Tchaikovsky "Pique Dame"'', Mirella Freni, Maureen Forrester, Vladimir Atlantov, Jorge Chaminé, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa. RCA (3 cd – live performance) *1992 ** ''Tangos'' Jorge Chaminé, Olivier Manoury, bandoneon. Silex ** ''Hebrew Songs'' works from Ravel, Bloch, lithurgy and ladinos. Jorge Chaminé, Marie-Françoise Bucquet. ADDA (live performance) ** ''Berlioz – L'Enfance du Christ '' Danielle Borst, Jorge Chaminé, Michel Pastor, Lionel Sarrazin, Choeur du Val d'Oise conducted by Michel Piquemal. ADIAM 95 (2 cd live performance) *1994 ** '' Edmund Pendleton – Miracle de la Nativité '' Susan Bullock, Stephan Imboden, Jorge Chaminé, Ensemble Instrumental Jean Walter Audoli, Ensemble Vocal Michel Piquemal conducted by Jean Walter Audoli *1995 ** ''Carlos Guastavino – Songs'', Jorge Chaminé, Marie-Françoise Bucquet, piano. Lyrinx *1996 ** ''Luis de Pablo – Tarde de Poetas'', Jorge Chamine with the Valencia Choir and the Orquesta da Camara Teatro Lliure conducted by Josep Pons. Harmonia Mundi. ** ''Claudio Carneyro – Songs'' Jorge Chaminé, Marie-Françoise Bucquet, piano. Movieplay Classics. *2000 ** '' Brahms – Lieder'' Jorge Chaminé, Marie-Françoise Bucquet, piano. Lyrinx *2006 ** ''Alma Latina Vol.1: Songs on poems of Vinicius de Moraes'' Jorge Chaminé, Norberto Pedreira, guitar, Daniel Diaz, bass guitar, Javier Estrella and Dada Viana, percussion. Sons Croisés/Exodos.

References

External links

official homepage

CIMA Festival homepageMusic in MEIbériades FestivalInterview Radio Classique in french

Georges Bizet Association

Centre européen de musique
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamine, Jorge Operatic baritones Portuguese emigrants to France Portuguese opera singers Portuguese people of Spanish descent Musicians from Porto 1956 births Living people University of Coimbra alumni