21 Facts About Osvaldo Lacerda

Osvaldo Costa de Lacerda was a Brazilian composer and professor of music.

Osvaldo Lacerda received several musical awards during his lifetime, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and contributed significantly to the training of younger musicians in Brazil as a professor of composition and theory, member of various musical organizations and societies, and author of textbooks for theory, ear training, and notation.

Osvaldo Lacerda began his musical training with piano lessons from teacher Ana Veloso de Resende when he was nine years old, later studying piano with Jose Kliass, and he started composing in his youth.

Between 1945 and 1947 Osvaldo Lacerda studied harmony and counterpoint with Ernesto Kierski and singing with Olga Urbany Ivanov.

At this point, Osvaldo Lacerda began lessons with composer Camargo Guarnieri, with whom he would continue to study until 1962 and who helped popularize Osvaldo Lacerda's music through recitals.

Alongside his studies with Guarnieri, Osvaldo Lacerda attended law school at the University of Sao Paulo, graduating in 1961; after earning his degree he focused mainly on composition.

Osvaldo Lacerda founded two artistic societies during this period: the Sociedade Paulista de Arte and the Sociedade Pro Musica Brasileira.

In 1962, Osvaldo Lacerda received first prize in the Brazilian National Composition Competition in 1962 for his orchestral suite Piratininga.

In 1962 Osvaldo Lacerda received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and traveled to the US to study with Vittorio Giannini in New York and Aaron Copland at Tanglewood.

In 1965 Osvaldo Lacerda participated in the Inter-American Composers Seminar at Indiana University and the Third Inter-American Music Festival in Washington, DC, having been chosen as the country's representative for these events by the Brazilian Minister of International Relations.

Osvaldo Lacerda returned to Brazil after his American studies and festival participation, and from the late 1970s to early 1980s he studied orchestration with conductor Roberto Schnorenberg.

Osvaldo Lacerda taught at the Escola Municipal de Musica de Sao Paulo from 1969 to 1992, at Santa Marcelina College, and at several music conferences and festivals.

Osvaldo Lacerda assisted Guarnieri by giving new students preparatory lessons in counterpoint and harmony.

Osvaldo Lacerda became a member of the Academia Brasileira de Musica in 1972.

In 1984 Osvaldo Lacerda founded his third artistic society, the Centro de Musica Brasileira; this organization is still active today.

Osvaldo Lacerda wrote four textbooks that are frequently used in Brazil and Portugal: Compendio de Teoria Elementar da Musica, Exercicios de Teoria Elementar da Musica, Curso Preparatorio de Solfejo e Ditado Musical, and Regras de Grafia Musical.

Osvaldo Lacerda continued to receive honors and awards throughout his mature years.

Osvaldo Lacerda was featured in festivals both in Brazil and the United States, including Sonidos de las Americas in New York City, the 31st Bar Harbor Music Festival in Maine, and the Latin American Music Festival at Bard College.

The Brazilian nationalist musical style that Guarnieri imparted to Osvaldo Lacerda had roots in the writings of aesthetician Mario de Andrade and continued in the vein of composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos and Francisco Mignone.

Apart from his interest in Brazilian folk and popular sources, Osvaldo Lacerda took after his teacher Guarnieri in the latter's neoclassical use of traditional European forms, such as sonata form or theme and variations.

Osvaldo Lacerda believed that it was important for nationalist composers to be open to new techniques so that their music could be a source of pride for their country.