Clélia Iruzun will pay tribute to Alberto Nepomuceno in a concert to be held on March 7th, 2020 at Opera America, New York City.
With her unique combination of a colorful Brazilian spirit and profound musicianship, the London-based pianist Clélia Iruzun has become one of the most exciting musicians to arrive on the international concert scene in recent years. Clélia initially studied at 
the School of Music at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and later at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she won several notable prizes in international competitions before graduating with the Academy’s Recital Diploma. Clélia subsequently worked with a number of greatly-admired virtuosos, including Nelson Freire, Jacques Klein, Stephen Kovacevich and Fou Ts’Ong, and most particularly with the highly distinguished Brazilian pianist and pedagogue Mercês de Silva Telles in Paris. Notable Brazilian composers, including Francisco Mignone, Arnaldo Rebello and Marlos Nobre, have dedicated works to Clélia, including – most recently – Beethoven Cunha and Alexandre Rachid.
About Alberto Nepomuceno
October 16th, 2020 will mark 100 years of Alberto Nepomuceno’ death
The Brazilian composer and conductor Alberto Nepomuceno played an important role in the emergence of a national Brazilian musical style. The teacher of Heitor Villa-Lobos, studied himself with some of Europe’s most famous figures. Nepomuceno was born July 6th, 1864, in Fortaleza, in northeast Brazil, where his father was a violin 
teacher and cathedral musician. The family moved to Recife, where Nepomuceno continued to study violin and piano, and considered a career in law. That brought him into contact with progressive forces that sought, eventually successfully, to overthrow the Brazilian monarchy and to institute republican government. He maintained his musical studies, however, and at the age of just 18 he became the director of the Carlos Gomes Club, Recife’s leading concert venue. A few years later, he began presenting his own songs in concert, many of them Portuguese-language songs even though partisans of Italian opera argued that Portuguese was inappropriate for vocal music. Nepomuceno carried on a vigorous battle in the press with his detractors, moving to Rio de Janeiro in 1885 and teaching music there.
More information: www.bmf-usa.org