South American: Various Composers

On this page you will find a colourful collection of composers for Latin-music. I found some biographical data about these guys. Please refer to the Music page for their compositions.

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Egberto Gismonti

Egberto Gismonti was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1947. His parents encouraged musical training in his youth. He studied at the Conservatory in Paris and developed himself into a multi-instrumentalist, amongst others on guitar. He used to be a member of the bossa nova scene in Brazil, but explored other musical areas including classical music. He considers his compositions to be a musical autobiography.

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Joep Wanders

Joep Wanders is trained as a classical guitarist. He has a great liking for composition of educational material for guitar with as examples Waterland Music and Guitarra Fiesta. For more information, refer to his web site.

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Roberto Baden-Powell de Aquinho

Baden Powell de Aquino was born in 1937 in the town of Varre-e-Sai in the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro. Obviously, his parents were great fans of the Scouting Movement because they named their son after Baden Powell, the founder of the Scouting Movement. In his childhood, his house was full of music, because his parents loved to organize recitals in their home. Baden Powell studied guitar and became one of the leading musicians in the bossa nova movement, which became very popular in Brasil and abroad. His cooperation with the singer/poet Vincius de Moraes yielded a number of beautiful songs. He passed away in 2000.

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Luiz Bonfa

Luiz Floriano Bonfa (1922-2001) taught himself to play guitar as a kid. Later he studied with Isaias Savio as a boy of twelve years. Savio was surprised about his dedication and rewarded it with free lessons. Bonfa became a musician and joined the Bossa Nova movement. His contribution to Orfeo Negro made him world-famous.

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Antonio Carlos Jobim

Antonio Carlos Jobim was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1927. He was supposed to become an architect. Music, however, tempted him and he became one of the legendary representatives of the Bossa Nova movement, although he showed a great love for Jazz as well. That yielded him the nickname Brazilian George Gershwin. Jobim became famous for the first time by his cooperation with Vinicius de Moraes and later played in and composed for many other ensembles.

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Inacio da Silva

Candido Inacio da Silva (1800-1838) was born in Rio de Janeiro. He composed a large number of romantic works that gave him the reputation of Brazilian Schubert. He published a number of Modinhas in the collection Modinhas Imperiais that was organised by Mario de Andrade. Unfortunately, his early death prevented him from becoming famous.