Alvaro Henrique

Alvaro Henrique is considered one of the main Brazilian guitarists because of his successful concerts in several countries; the quality and originality of his repertoire, his remarkable cooperation with composers, his playing on modern guitars and replicas of antique instruments, and a broad range of musical activities that includes CD and DVD recordings, promoting instrumental music events, researching on music, editing and making new arrangments, teaching young virtuosos, and giving lectures and courses.

Alvaro Henrique has given performances in about 15 countries of 3 continents, including countries with intense concert activity such as the USA, England, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, to countries less active such as Namibia, Mozambique, Jamaica and Greece. Among those performances he has given solo recitals (such as in Ireland), concertos with orchestra (such as in Finland), and performances in music festivals (such as in Peru). He was conducted by Julio Medaglia, Rogerio Santos, Ricardo Calderoni and Ville Mankkinen, among others. 

A unique feature of the artist is his repertoire choice. Among these programs, special mention is made to the “Complete Solo Guitar Works of Heitor Villa-Lobos”. Being the only Brazilian to play this repertoire abroad in the last decade, Alvaro Henrique’s work was recommended to the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the promotion of Villa-Lobos’ music. Other successful projects are “Hommage to the 50th Anniversary of Brasilia”, “Melody”, “Sonatas”, and “Flowers to Villa-Lobos”. 

Alvaro Henrique has used old instrument replicas in his performances. At the moment he owns a baroque theorboed guitar, instrument fit to accompany other musicians and to play the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries. 

Besides playing the music of the past with an historical background, Alvaro Henrique is very active on the promotion of nowadays’ music. He performed works of recognized composers, such as Claudio Santoro, and promotes the music of lesser know composers, such as John Duarte. Among his debut recordings and performances, special mention is made to the first radio broadcasting of Valse-Choro, by Heitor Villa-Lobos. More than a dozen works were written for him, among them four guitar concertos, making Alvaro Henrique one of the guitarists who had more concertos written for him/her in the history. Some composers who wrote for Alvaro Henrique or had works premiered  by him are Jorge Antunes, Ernest Mahle, John Duarte, Mario Ferraro, Carlos Alberto da Silva, Sergio Igor Chnee, Guerra Vicente,  Celso Mojola, Jean Goldenbaum and Calimerio Soares. 

Alvaro Henrique was the first guitarist from Brasilia to record a classical guitar album. He recorded two more CDs, one released in Switzerland (Brazilian Breeze) and another released in Austria (Jean Goldenbaum). He was also on the recording of the “Street Opera: Auto do Pesadelo de Dom Bosco”, by Jorge Antunes, on DVD. His second solo CD will be released by a USA label in the first semester of 2013, and will feature pieces written for the 50th anniversary of Brasilia. 

Alvaro Henrique is President-Founder of the Guitar Society of Brasilia (BRAVIO), and remains on the board of directors since 2007. BRAVIO is the only Latin American guitar society partner of the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) and, since 2005, has already organized more than 100 activities featuring concerts, lectures, meetings, masterclasses, 6 festivals and 6 competitions. BRAVIO has received musicians from Japan to Canada, among them Jorge Caballero, Judicaël Perroy, Gabriel Bianco and Johannes Möller. 

From 2010 to 2012 Alvaro Henrique worked as Professor at the Universidade Federal de Uberlandia, and in this short period he had 12 undergraduate students awarded in competitions, performing in important cities, such as Salzburg (Austria), and/or recording CDs. He has also presented lectures and courses on career planning, musical expressivity, and study techniques for musicians. 

His academic activity includes the Master in Music dissertation “The Expressivity Planning in Contemporary Music”, achieved at the Universidade de Brasilia under Prof. Dr. Antenor Correa, and articles published in Brazil. His non-academic texts were published in newspapers and music magazines. Clear Note Publications (USA) is publishing one of his arrangements. 

Alvaro Henrique holds a Bachelor in Music degree at the Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP), Kunstliche Ausbildung at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg (Germany), and a Master in Music at the Universidade de Brasilia. Among his main teachers are Franz Halasz, Alvise Migotto, Bohumil Med and Zilmar Gustavo Costa. His non-academic education includes several masterclasses with internationally renowned musicians such as Odair and Sergio Assad, Leo Brouwer, Judicaël Perroy, Michael Lewin, Jakob Lindberg, Pavel Stedl and Ricardo Gallen; other musical activities (playing the oboe, conducting, composing); exchanging ideas with other musicians in several festivals, congresses and events; and the constant reading on his area of expertise and related themes.

http://alvarohenrique.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN4mn1z76Sg&list=UU14Lh0JC0MjrCFS9OYeyfcw