'What intrigues me is how my father could tame so

many faculties, switch from one universe to another. 

This has never ceased to be him.'
Alessandro Santoro

 

One of the most important Brazilian voices in classical music of the 20th century, Cláudio Santoro (1919-1989) stands as one of the most restless and versatile musicians of our time. A child prodigy, brilliant performer and conductor, dynamic event organizer, and a lucid educator and researcher, his major contribution to Brazil's musical life and institutions has influenced several generations; as a composer, he left behind some of the most captivating pieces in the entire Latin American repertoire.

​

Cláudio Santoro has his greatest ambassador in his son, Alessandro, who has worked tirelessly to preserve his father's musical legacy and disseminate his catalogue worldwide through the virtual archive, claudiosantoro.art.br, and the management of his publisher, Savart Editions. To mark the 2019 centenary of Cláudio Santoro's birth and the recent release of UnB's urtext edition of the complete Preludes (including some previously unpublished pieces), Alessandro, who edited and revised the collection, will perform selected movements intermingled with rare audio recordings of his father's musical commentaries. Like many of the composers of his hemisphere, Santoro demonstrated an eclectic ability to articulate an almost contradictory range of musical languages, drawing from both classical and popular influences - from the obtuse twelve-tone, avant-garde trends of the early 20th-century to the most sumptuous bossa-nova-esque songs of later years. His piano Preludes, written across the span of his career, offer a fascinating window into the breadth of his oeuvre; these most private and intimate works - also the first and the last pieces he wrote - collectively demonstrate the evolution of his style. Having grown up listening to his father playing them, Alessandro will also share with us his privileged insights into their interpretation.

​

'An interpreter with an absolutely crystaline touch and the smoothest of textures.'

La Nuova Ferrara

​

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Alessandro Santoro studied piano at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and harpsichord at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He performs regularly worldwide as a member of ensembles such as La Petite Bande, The Orchestra of the 18th Century, La Sfera Armoniosa and the Den Haag Baroque Orchestra (which he also founded). Boasting a prolific discography, he has recorded Cláudio Santoro's first Piano Concerto with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Samara and is currently recording his complete violin Sonatas with Emmanuele Baldini. He currently teaches harpsichord at the EMESP in São Paulo. He recently received the Musical Director's Prize at the 48th Brasilia Film Festival for his documentary about his father.

​

Copies of the new UnB Edition of Santoro's Preludes for solo piano will be available for perusal / purchase after the concert.

​                

PLUS Ticket includes a complimentary glass of Brazilian wine and the chance to mingle and meet the artist after the concert!

          

Cláudio Santoro Preludes (Selection)

 

Alessandro Santoro piano & speaker

​

Organised by ILAMS as part of Echoes Festival 2019 and Amigo Month in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes, Poliphonia and the Institute of Modern Languages Research and the Open World Research Initiative (OWRI), Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community, Translingual Strand, with the kind support of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Brazilian Embassy.