Clara Sverner (August 29, 1936) is a Brazilian

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, who has had classical education.

History

Born in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

, Clara Sverner's interpretations are well considered by public and critics from Brazil and abroad. She had a sound education, started in São Paulo with José Kliass, that in turn studied in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

with

Martin Krause Martin Krause (17 June 18532 August 1918) was a German concert pianist, piano teacher,James Methuen-Campbell (2001). Krause, Martin. '' Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press music critic, and writer. Career Martin Krause was born in ...

, a

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

pupil. She got her master's with Louis Hildebrand, at Conservatory of Geneve, where she has got a Gold Medal. She did improvement studies with Leonard Shure, an assistant to

Artur Schnabel Artur Schnabel (17 April 1882 – 15 August 1951) was an Austrian-American classical pianist, composer and pedagogue. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th centur ...

, and then at the

Mannes College of Music Mannes School of Music is a music conservatory in The New School, a private research university in New York City. In the fall of 2015, Mannes moved from its previous location on Manhattan's Upper West Side to join the rest of the New School ca ...

, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. While still a teenager, she won the International Wilhelm Backhaus Competition, starting a career that made her one of the most prestigious Brazilian virtuosi. Ms. Sverner participated in recitals and concerts all over Brazil, and toured in Europe, the United States, Japan and Israel. Her programmes usually feature a repertoire that includes pieces from the old English

virginalist The virginals (or virginal) is a keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. It was popular in Europe during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. Description A virginal is a smaller and simpler rectangular or polygonal form of ...

s of the 16th century, to the major composers of 20th century. She highlights, most of all, the aesthetic quality, the boldness of invention and the expressive power of the pieces she performs. As such, Clara Sverner is a nonconformist artist, who never tires of enhancing, researching and daring. In the context of Brazilian classical music, she was responsible more than anyone else for the revival of the popularity of the works of Glauco Velásquez, a Brazilian classical composer of the 20th century. Clara Sverner recorded several pieces for piano by

Chiquinha Gonzaga Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga, better known as Chiquinha Gonzaga (; October 17, 1847 – February 28, 1935) was a Brazilian composer, pianist and the first woman conductor in Brazil. Chiquinha Gonzaga was the first pianist of "choro" and ...

, and thus was responsible for attracting the attention of the public to her works. Ms Sverner's fruitful partnership with the Brazilian instrumentalist

Paulo Moura Paulo Moura (15 July 1932 – 12 July 2010) was a Brazilian clarinetist and saxophonist. Born in São José do Rio Preto, where his father was the maestro of a marching band and encouraged his son to train as a tailor, Paulo instead studied in ...

was opened up to several musical universes, exploring works from the Brazilian popular music (like

Pixinguinha Alfredo da Rocha Viana Filho, known as Pixinguinha (; April 23, 1897February 17, 1973) was a Brazilian composer, arranger, flautist and saxophonist born in Rio de Janeiro. Pixinguinha is considered one of the greatest Brazilian composers of pop ...

), to contemporary classical composers like

Almeida Prado Almeida may refer to: People *Almeida (surname) *Almeida Garrett (1799–1854), Portuguese poet, playwright, novelist and politician *Laurindo Almeida (1917–1995), Brazilian jazz musician Places *Almeidas Province, province in Colombia * Almeid ...

Gilberto Mendes Gilberto Mendes (13 October 1922 – 1 January 2016) was a 20th-century Brazilian avant-garde composer, and one of the pioneering fathers of the company New Consonant Music. Biography Gilberto Mendes was born in Santos, Brazil, in 1922. He s ...

, and Ronaldo Miranda, that created pieces specifically for the Sverner and Moura duo. Ms. Sverner's discography has 25 records, available worldwide, and reflects her sense of aesthetics and her ''esprit d'avant garde''.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sverner, Clara Brazilian classical pianists Brazilian women pianists Brazilian Jews Jewish musicians Living people Musicians from São Paulo 21st-century classical pianists Year of birth missing (living people) Women classical pianists 21st-century women pianists