José Vieira Brandão

Brazilian composer and pianist José Vieira Brandão was born in 1911. He entered the National School of Music in Rio de Janeiro where he studied counterpoint and fugue with Raimundo Silva and Alfredo Richard, and piano with Custódio Fernandes Gois. During the early 1930s Brandão met Heitor Villa-Lobos and in 1932 became his assistant and helped him with his program to reform the teaching of music education in Brazilian schools. In 1945 Brandão received a scholarship from the University of Southern California that allowed him to study music education in this country. Upon his return to Brazil he became a professor at the Conservatório de Canto Orfeônico in 1947, and remained there until 1967. He died in Rio de Janeiro in 2002.

Although Brandão’s earliest compositions date from the late 1920s, it wasn’t until after 1940 that he began to compose in earnest. He was a prolific composer whose oeuvre includes music of all genres save works for large instrumental ensembles, such as for symphony orchestra or concert band. His music is characterized by its inclination toward a more discrete kind of musical nationalism.

Maestro Brandão’s Compositions