Concert: André Mehmari

Join Americas Society today!

André Mehmari is considered one of Brazil's most talented young musicians. His activities as a pianist, composer, and arranger are highly regarded in both popular and classical music. His compositions have been performed by leading orchestras such as Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo and chamber ensembles such as the São Paulo String Quartet, and his career in jazz and Brazilian popular music has taken him to all of Brazil's major jazz festivals as well as to Europe and the United States.

Born in 1977 in Niteroi, he began to study music with his mother at the age of five, and completed an organ course at the Conservatory of Ribeirao Preto. At age 10, having taught himself jazz improvisation, he wrote his first compositions; at 15, while teaching organ in the Conservatory, he was invited to compose a method for keyboard beginners. The result was a 20-piece collection, a work greatly praised by young musicians and their teachers. Mehmari’s precociousness as a composer and multi-instrumentalist was well documented by the media.

He began study at Universidade de São Paulo (USP) in 1995 and, in the same year, won the University’s competition for original Brazilian popular music (MPB). Two years later, the same honor was awarded to him for classical music. Both his performing schedule and composing activity grew busier as he began touring and writing orchestral arrangements for major musical events in São Paulo. In 1998, he won the first national Prêmio VISA de MPB competition, the most important award for popular music in Brazil. The competition's prize is the recording of a new CD, which became Mehmari's first release and brought him concert opportunities throughout Brazil.

Sixteen CDs have followed, including Lachrimae (2004), featuring two diferent piano trios and singer Mônica Salmaso; Piano e Voz (2006) with singer Ná Ozzetti; De Árvores e Valsas (2008), devoted entirely to André's compositions; Miramari (2009), a collaboration with clarinet master Gabriele Mirabassi; Gismontipascoal (2010), with mandolin virtuoso Hamilton de Holanda and winner of the 2011 Prêmio da Música Brasileira; Afetuoso (2011), a return to his dynamic piano trio music; Canteiro (2011), a two-CD set with performances by thirteen of his favorite Brazilian singers; and Triz (2012), with Chico Pinheiro and Sérgio Santos. While each of these works offers musicians distinct from the others, they share Mehmari's blend of lyricism, dynamism, and elegance.

In 2006, he won the Carlos Gomes award for classical music revelation of the year, and was appointed resident composer for the São Paulo State Wind Band. The Pan American Games commissioned him in 2007 to compose music based on themes by Villa-Lobos, Jobim, and Chico Buarque for ceremonies at Rio de Janeiro's Maracanã Stadium. For her Spanish Schubertiade, pianist Maria João Pires commissioned him to write Viagem de Verão. In 2008, he premiered his Jazz Concerto for piano trio and strings with Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo as well his double concerto for jazz piano, clarinet, and winds with clarinetist Gabriele Mirabassi and the São Paulo State Wind Band. The following year brought forth more premieres including Ballo, a full-scale ballet commissioned and performed by São Paulo Companhia de Dança with choreography by Ricardo Scheir. And in 2010, the German network Deutsche Welle commissioned him to create a new work for the Sinfônica Heliópolis, an orchestra organized in one of São Paulo's poorest slums and now one of the world's finest youth orchestras. Mehmari composed Cidade do Sol (City of Sun), a portrait of the orchestra itself, which premiered at Beethovenfest in Bonn and Berlin.

His active performing calendar includes his two trios; duos with singers Mônica Salmaso, Ná Ozzetti, mandolinist Hamilton de Holanda, clarinetist Gabriele Mirabassi, and cellist Dimos Goudaroulis, and solo piano concerts. He had his U.S. debut in the 2005 edition of Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina. In 2008, he performed with Maria Schneider at the Ouro Preto Jazz Festival in Minas Gerais and toured northeastern Brazil with Ivan Lins, playing works by Lins as well as his own compositions. Recently he returned to Japan for a series of solo concerts and to Europe to perform the music of Gismontipascoal in duo with Hamilton de Holanda.

Watch Mehmari playing “Lagoa da Conceição” and “Famoso” at Americas Society in 2013 on YouTube.