Fernando Brandao

Music Instructor in Jazz Flute

Contact
Email:
fb100@wellesley.edu
Department
Music

Flutist, composer, author, and educator Fernando Brandão has performed as a bandleader, sideman, chamber musician, and soloist in his native Brazil and the U.S. Using concert, alto, and bass flutes and pífanos, he performs across an eclectic repertoire of traditional and contemporary Brazilian music styles, combining jazz improvisations with an authentic Brazilian sound. A leading educator in Brazilian music, he has given many lectures about its music styles, history, and composers.

Career Highlights

  • Performances at such festivals as the First Cambridge Jazz Festival, the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival, and the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, and at such venues as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Pickman Hall, Casa do Choro, Sala Cecília Meirelles, and Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, among others
  • Author of Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Jazz Conception, a book with play-along CDs for eight different instruments, published by Advance Music
  • Five albums as a bandleader, producer, or coproducer: Sem Tradução, Samba pra Juju, Tempero Brasileiro, Brazilian Landscapes, and Brasileirinho
  • Recordings as a composer with Choro das Três, Almir Cortes, and New World Guitar Trio
  • Recordings as sideman with such artists as Matthew Nicholl and Michael Farquharson, Kris Adams, Pablo Ablanedo, Sergio Brandão and Manga Rosa, and the Teresa Inês Quintet, among others
  • ​Recipient of a Brazilian Government Scholarship, 1989–90
  • Studio recordings in Brazil and the U.S. on Chesky Records, Glider Records, Global Village Records, Narada Lotus, and Ouver Records, among others

Awards

  • Excellence In Performance Award, Longy School of Music, 1995
  • Winner, J. Pappoutsakis Flute Competition, 1991
  • Two-time prize winner, III and IV Eldorado Award of Music, 1988 and 1988
  • First place as flutist and first place overall among all instrumentalists and vocalists, II National Soloists of Orquestra Sinfônica do Espirito Santo, 1986
  • Two-time winner, V and VI Young Brazilian Soloists Competition, 1986 and 1987
  • Winner, II National Contest of Young Concert Artists of Brazilian Music, 1984