José Antônio Rezende de Almeida Prado or Almeida Prado (February 8, 1943 – November 21, 2010) was an important

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

and a

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

. On Almeida Prado's death, his personal friend, conductor

João Carlos Martins João Carlos Gandra da Silva Martins (); born June 25, 1940) is a Brazilian classical pianist and conducting, conductor, who has performed with leading orchestras in the United States, Europe and Brazil. He is celebrated as a great interpreter o ...

stated that Prado had possibly been the most important Brazilian composer ever. Prado wrote over 400 compositions and won various prizes for his work. He was born in

Santos Santos may refer to: People *Santos (surname) * Santos Balmori Picazo (1899–1992), Spanish-Mexican painter * Santos Benavides (1823–1891), Confederate general in the American Civil War Places *Santos, São Paulo, a municipality in São Paulo ...

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

in 1943. He died in

in 2010, having lived there for the latter part of his life.

Training

In Brazil, Almeida Prado studied with

Dinorá de Carvalho Dinorá Gontijo de Carvalho (1 June 1904/5 – 28 February 1980) was a Brazilian people, Brazilian pianist, Conducting, conductor, Music education, music educator and composer. Life Carvalho was born in Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and bega ...

(

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

), Osvaldo Lacerda (

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

) and

Camargo Guarnieri Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (February 1, 1907 – January 13, 1993) was a Brazilian composer. Guarnieri was born in Tietê, São Paulo. He studied piano, composition, and conducting in São Paulo and Paris. His compositions received significant rec ...

(composition). Upon winning first prize for his

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...

, based on a text by

Hilda Hilst Hilda de Almeida Prado Hilst (21 April 1930 – 4 February 2004) was a Brazilian poet, novelist, and playwright. Her work touches on the themes of mysticism, insanity, the body, eroticism, and Sexual revolution, female sexual liberation. Hilst ...

, at the ''I Festival de Música da Guanabara'' in 1969, he continued his studies in Europe. He studied with

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

and

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

from 1970 to 1973, besides brief studies with

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

and

Lukas Foss Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor. Career Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with J ...

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

Professional activities

Returning to Brazil in 1974, Almeida Prado first taught at the ''Conservatório Municipal de

Cubatão Cubatão is a city in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil, 12 kilometers away from Santos (São Paulo), Santos seaport, the largest in Latin America. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of the Baixada Santista. The population i ...

'', and then, hired by

Zeferino Vaz Zeferino Vaz (May 27, 1908 – February 19, 1981) was a Brazilian doctor who led the construction, establishment and development of the Unicamp university, in the interior of the State of São Paulo, Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s. The main ...

, he became a professor at the

UNICAMP The University of Campinas (), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. Established in 1962, Unicamp was designed from scratch as an integrated Research institute, researc ...

Institute of the Arts, retiring in 2000. After his retirement he settled in

, where he occasionally taught music courses and presented a radio program at Cultura FM. In January 2007, his cantata ''Hiléia, Um Mural da Amazônia'', based on the poem of the same name by Ives Gandra Martins, was performed at

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 ...

by the ''Orquestra Bachiana Filarmônica de São Paulo'' conducted by

Selected works

;Orchestral * Sinfonia no. 1 (1970) * Abertura Cidade de Campinas (1976) * Sinfonia Unicamp (1976) * Abertura Cidade de São Paulo (1981) * Sinfonia dos Orixás (1985) * Arcos Sonoros da Catedral de Bruckner (1996) * Symphonic Variations (2005) ;Concertante * Variações sobre um tema do Rio Grande do Norte (1963) for piano and orchestra * Ceremonial (1971) for bassoon and orchestra * Exoflora (1974) for piano and orchestra * Aurora (1975) for piano and orchestra * Concerto for violin and string orchestra (1976) * Crônica de um dia de verão (1979), for clarinet and string orchestra * Concerto for flute and string orchestra (1981) * Piano Concerto no. 1 (1983) * Variações concertantes para marimba, vibrafone e cordas (1984) * Concerto ''Fribourgeois'' for piano e string orchestra (1985) * Fantasia (1997) for violin and orchestra * Psalm 148 (1997) for piano and concert band * Cartas Celestes VII (1998) for 2 pianos and concert band * Cartas Celestes VIII (1999) for violin and orchestra * Concerto for oboe and string orchestra (2001) ;Chamber music * Cantus Mobiles (1966) for violin and piano * Portrait de Lili Boulanger (1972) for flute, piano and string quartet * Livro Sonoro (1973) for string quartet * Ex Itinere (1974) for piano and string trio * Continuous movement (1976) for string quartet * Macaíra: a pescaria fantástica (1977), for harpsichord and 2 pianos (or 4-hand piano) * Paná-Paná I (1977) for flute, oboe and piano * String Quartet no. 1 (1978) * Paná-Paná II (1981) for clarinet, cello and piano * Violin Sonata no. 1 (1980) * Viola Sonata (1983) * Trio marítimo (1983) for violin, cello e piano * Violin Sonata no. 2 (1984) * Xangô (1984–85) for violin and cello * Réquiem para a paz (1985) for viola and piano * Sonata for flute and piano (1986) * Violin Sonata no. 3 (1991) * Sonata Tropical (1996) for 2 guitars * 4 Corais (1998) for double bass and piano * Sonata for trombone and piano (1998) * Cartas Celestes XI (2000) for vibraphone, marimba and piano * Sonata for cello and piano (2003) * Violin Sonata no. 4 (2007) ;Piano * 14 Estudos (1962-2003) * 55 Momentos (1965–83) * 11 Piano Sonatas (1965-2001) * Ilhas (1973) * Cartas celestes I (1974) * Rios (1976) * Itinerário idílico e amoroso ou Livro de Helenice (1976) * Cartas celestes II-VI (1981–82) * Savanas (1983) * 16 Poesilúdios (1983-1985) * 24 Corais (1984-1999) * 12 Sonetos (1984-1999) * 14 Noturnos (1985-1991) * Halley (1986) * Rosário de Medjugorje (1987-2002) * 9 Louvores Sonoros (1988) * Três Croquis de Israel (1989) * 25 Prelúdios (1989-1992) * Quinze Flashes de Jerusalém (1990) * 5 Líricas (1994-2007) * Cartas celestes IX-XIV (1999-2001) * Cartas celestes XV-XVIII (2009-2010) ;Choral * Ritual para a Sexta-feira Santa para coro e orquestra (1966) * Paixão de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo segundo São Marcos (1967) * (1969) * Carta de Patmo para coro, solista e orquestra (1971) * Thèrèse ou l’Amour de Dieu para coro e orquestra (1986) * Cantata Bárbara Heliodora para solistas, coro misto e orquestra de câmara (1987) * Cantata Adonay Roi Loeçar para solistas, coro e orquestra de câmara (1989)

Publications

* Prado, José Antônio R. De Almeida, Cartas Celestes: uma uranografia sonora geradora de novos processos composicionais. Campinas: Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes, Departamento de Música: 1986. Tese (Doutorado).

Notes

References

* Translated from part of th
Portuguese article

External links

Biography
(in Portuguese)
Scores by Almeida Prado
at the Portal Musica Brasilis
Interview with Matheus G. Bitondi
(in Portuguese)
Radio broadcast in homage to Almeida Prado: Antonio Menenses; Eduardo Monteiro; Orquestra Acadêmica: Roberto Minczuk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Almeida Prado, Jose Antonio De 1943 births 2010 deaths 20th-century Brazilian classical pianists Brazilian composers Brazilian male classical pianists Pupils of Lukas Foss People from Santos, São Paulo Musicians from São Paulo (state)