VITA SINE MVSICA NIHIL EST ~ Life is nothing without music.

This Latin phrase is found in several musical instruments from the XVth and XVIth centuries and it resumes quite well my personal motto. Art in general has always been a significant part of my life. My parents used to listen to all kinds of music: from Bach to Beatles, Bee Gees to Betânia or Barão Vermelho.

This very eclectical environment got me interested in making music and in learning to play piano. Later in life, I started to appreciate all kind of arts: painting, architecture (mainly from the Italian Renaissance), photography, calygraphy or any type of creative expression.

Music

I always liked music and learned to play a bit of keyboard when I was young. Then, one christmas when I was thirteen, I got my father in the family’s secret santa and I gave him a CD with Beatles songs played on solo piano and with nature sounds. That made me want to start having piano lessons. Soon, I entered the technical school Allegro under the teachings of Mrs. Dirce Maria de Falco (school where I became a teacher years later). After hightschool, I went to UNICAMP (University of Campinas), where I studied classical piano with Prof. Maria José Carrasqueira and basso-continuo with Prof. Helena Jank, who also tutored me in my research “L’Amitié et L’Amour de Sigismund Neukomm”.

During my university years, I fell in love with the Early Music movement (or Historical Informed Performance Practice) and old instruments, like the harpsichord. That led me to Europe and to pursue a second degree at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague (The Netherlands) where I studied harpsichord with Prof. Jacques Ogg and basso-continuo with Prof. Patrick Ayrto. Part of Subsequently, I got my master’s degree cum laude from the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven (Belgium), under the tutoring of Prof. Kris Verhelst.

You can find some of my performances, during these years of adventures in the musical world, in my youtube channel. Here are a few I particularly like:

• Debussy ~ Arabesque
• Brahms ~ Rhapsody
• Neukomm ~ L’Amitié et L’Amour
• Couperin ~ Les Nations-La Françoise
• De Gustibus Unitis

Photography

I can’t draw. Period. However, I discovered that I could express myself graphically by the means of a camera. I started to take photography more seriously when I inherited my father’s Nikon FG-20, an amazing film camera from the 80’s, and not long after I started to shoot digital as well. Now, every time I travel I try to have one of my cameras with me. I’m far from a professional, but here you can see some of my dearest shots.