Simone Menezes (born 22 January 1977) is an
Italo-Brazilian
Italian Brazilians ( it, italo-brasiliani, pt, ítalo-brasileiros) are Brazilians of full or partial Italian descent. Italian Brazilians are the largest number of people with full or partial Italian ancestry outside Italy, with São Paulo being ...
conductor based in France.
Early life
Menezes was born in
Brasília
Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...
. She studied piano, flute and conducting at the
State University of Campinas
The State University of Campinas ( pt, Universidade Estadual de Campinas), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Unicamp is consistently ranked among the top universities in Brazil and Latin ...
(Unicamp). This university ranks first in the list of best universities in Latin America according to the British magazine ''
Times Higher Education
''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education.
Ownership
TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...
''.)
At the age of 20, she created her first orchestra, the young symphonic orchestra of Campinas – Unicamp. She obtained sponsorship from the
Petrobras to develop the young orchestra, perform tours and record,
subsequently going to Europe to study.
In 2007–2008, she obtained a scholarship to study at the
École normale de musique de Paris
The École Normale de Musique de Paris "Alfred Cortot" (ENMP) is a leading conservatoire located in Paris, Île-de-France, France. At the time of the school's foundation in 1919 by Auguste Mangeot, Alfred Cortot. The term ''école normale'' (Eng ...
where she was awarded her diploma after only one year of study. In parallel, she studied with
Colin Metters
Colin Metters, is an English conductor, orchestral trainer and conducting pedagogue. He is Professor of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he founded the Conductors' Course in 1983. In September 2013, he retired as Head o ...
in London and developed contemporary music repertoire while residing with the Remix Ensemble (Portugal) and Ensemble Multilatérale (Paris).
She also participated in masterclasses with
Paavo Järvi
Paavo Järvi (; born 30 December 1962) is an Estonian-American conductor.
Early life
Järvi was born in Tallinn, Estonia, to Liilia Järvi and the Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi. His siblings, Kristjan Järvi and Maarika Järvi, are also mu ...
,
Neeme Järvi
Neeme Järvi (; born 7 June 1937) is an Estonian American conductor.
Early life
Järvi was born in Tallinn. He initially studied music there, and later in Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich, ...
,
Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky, CBE (russian: Генна́дий Никола́евич Рожде́ственский; 4 May 1931 – 16 June 2018) was a Soviet and Russian conductor.
Biography
Gennady Rozhdestvensky was born in Moscow. ...
and .
Career
On her return to Brazil, from 2008 until 2012 she assumed the direction of the Unicamp Symphony Orchestra and became, after
Ligia Amadio
Ligia Amadio is a Brazilian conductor, currently chief conductor of the Bogotá Philharmonic.
Biography
Studies
Ligia Amadio began studying music at the age of five on the piano, eventually completing her diploma at the Dramatic and Musical ...
, only the second woman to be a conductor of a professional orchestra in Brazil. While at the orchestra of UNICAMP, her project "Panorama da Musica Brasileira" received the prize awarded by the São Paulo State Association of Critics. She developed several multidisciplinary projects including dance, music, technology and premiered more than 20 works.
In 2013, she founded and directed the "Camerata Latino Americana",
an ensemble specialized in the interpretation of Latin American repertoire and attracted the attention of the ISPA International Society for the Performing Arts of New York and the Association of British Orchestras in London.
In 2014, she founded with the pianist
Sonia Rubinsky the "Villa Lobos Project", a project dedicated to promoting the work of the composer
Villa-Lobos and classical Brazilian music internationally; the development of a reflection on Brazilian identity in partnership with other artists, researchers and the general public; the realization of artistic and cultural projects such as concerts, masterclasses and publications.
Since 2014, she has been mentored by
Paavo Järvi
Paavo Järvi (; born 30 December 1962) is an Estonian-American conductor.
Early life
Järvi was born in Tallinn, Estonia, to Liilia Järvi and the Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi. His siblings, Kristjan Järvi and Maarika Järvi, are also mu ...
and works as his assistant on several projects.
In 2019, she was awarded second prize in the European competition MAWOMA (Master Woman Orchestra) for female orchestra conductors at the Musikverein in Vienna. In the same year, she made her Japanese debut with the
Osaka Symphony Orchestra and
Chofu International Music Festival.
Considered to be an avant-gardist and an engaged personality, today there are around 4% women orchestra conductors in the world, Menezes was the second woman to be at the head of a professional orchestra in Brazil at a time when there were even less. She has always been engaged in numerous multidisciplinary projects and her style is considered as innovative. She has worked with composers such as:
Thomas Ades
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
,
Esteban Benzecry
Esteban Benzecry (born 1970) is an Argentine classical composer.
Early years
Benzecry was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1970 to Argentine parents. He grew up in Argentina where he studied musical composition with Sergio Hualpa and Haydee Gerardi ...
,
Lera Auerbach
Lera Auerbach (russian: Лера Авербах, born Valeria Lvovna Averbakh, russian: Валерия Львовна Авербах; October 21, 1973) is a Soviet-born American classical composer and concert pianist. ,
Philippe Hersant
Philippe Hersant (born 21 June 1948 in Rome) is a French composer. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris.
Selected works
:: Hersant's works are largely published by Éditions Durand.
;Stage
* '' Le Château des Carpathes'', Opera in a pro ...
.
In 2019, she launched a new project called "K", an orchestral ensemble formed by musicians from several countries to explore unusual repertoires and multidisciplinary projects. The ensemble is based in Lille, Belgium and Paris.The Ensemble K released in 2020 his first album Accents by the label Aparté acclaimed by the press and said by the newspaper le monde "Founded in 2019 by the Italian-Brazilian conductor Simone Menezes, Ensemble K calls itself: Klassique, Kosmopolite, Kontemporain, Kréatif, Connected”. And that's true ! " And in 2022, she created with her orchestra K lhe a multiforme musical project "Metanoia", the project launched by the German label Accentus, includes a CD, a touring and the documentary Metanoia that brings a fresh discussion about classical music, art and photography. The documentary is signed by the Grammy winner Paul Smaczny and features Italian thinker Alberto Cavali, German painter Michael Triegel and conductor Antonio Pappano.
In 2021 Philharmonie de Paris comissionated a symphonic project around Amazon Rainforest that Simone developed in partnership with the photographer Sebastiao Salgado, a concert combining the music of Villa-Lobos and Philip Glass with the images of the photographer. The project, acclaimed by "The Guardian", made its debut at the Philharmonie de Paris and went on tour in several cities around the world, passing by the Barbican in London, the Pacco da Musica in Rome among others.
In the Universal Exposition of Dubai in 2022, she also leads the concert "The beauty will save the world" with Cartier Women's Initiative as part of the Women's Pavilion at the Universal exhibition in Dubai, bringing a first female conductor, ensemble and a female choir to this country.
Personal life
Menezes is married since the age of 20 to the engineer Humberto Menezes and is the mother of Julia Menezes.
Discography
* ''Novos Universos Sonoros with'' ''Orquestra Sinfônica da Unicamp'' (2009)
* ''Suíte Contemporânea Brasileira with'' ''Camerata Latino Americana'' (2015)
* ''Accents with'' ''Ensemble K'' (Aparté; 2020)
* ''Metanoia -'' Puccini, Bach, Villa-Lobos, Pärt, Borodin. With Manon Galy, Violine; ''Ensemble K'' (Accentus; 2021)
References
External links
*
Villa Lobos Project website*https://www.ensemblek.com/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menezes, Simone
1977 births
Living people
Musicians from Brasília
Brazilian conductors (music)
Brazilian women conductors (music)
20th-century women musicians
21st-century women musicians