PAULO RIOS FILHO
Short Bio
Brazilian composer born in the city of Salvador, Rios Filho has a Ph.D in Music Composition at Federal University of Bahia, under Dr. Paulo Costa Lima supervision.
In 2007, his debut work O Contrariador was selected to integrate the program of the XVII Biannual of Brazlian Contemporary Music (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and he was first prize in two categories of the I Ernst Widmer Composition Competition (Salvador, Brazil). In 2008, he was given a scholarship to the 39º Winter Festival of Campos do Jordão (São Paulo, Brazil) and Honorable Mention at the I Young Composers Competition City of Portimão (Portugal). In 2009, his work Choro de Estamira was one of the selected compositions on the I Nieuw Ensemble/BAM Dialogue Brazilian Composers' Competition (Netherlands); his orchestral piece Mau was first prize on the I Prof. Fernando Burgos Composition Competition (Salvador, Brazil); and his chamber work O Engimático Gato de Rimas, was laureate in one of the four categories of the FUNARTE/XVIII Biannual Prize (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). In 2014, he was one of the thirty Brazilian composers selected by vote to be commissioned a new work which was premiered in October of 2015 during the XXI Biannual of Brazilian Comtemporary Music (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Also in 2015, his solo guitar piece Répéter was given Honorable Mention at the X Boston GuitarFest Composition Competition (USA), amongst almost 200 submitted works by composers from more than 30 different countries.
Rios Filho has been working and collaborating with important ensembles and musicians from his homeland and abroad, such as GNU, ABSTRAI, Camará Ensemble and Camerata Aberta (Brazil); ICE and Orpheu Ensemble (USA); Quinteto Avent-Gard and Interpercussão (Portugal); Nieuw Ensemble (Netherlands); Ensemble Modern (Germany). With the latter, he recently was one of the four composers commissioned for the project Re-inventing Smetak (2017), promoted by DAAD Artists-in-Berlin and Ensemble Modern itself — a homage to Swiss-Brazilian improviser and instruments' inventor Walter Smetak, including some of his plásticas sonoras on stage in concerts presented in Europe (MaerzMusik) and in Brazil. His works have been performed in most of the Brazilian provinces, besides Portugal, Venezuela, Argentina, Netherlands, USA, Germany, Norway, Russia, Spain and Switzerland.
He is a founder member of OCA (group of composers from Salvador), Camará Ensemble (Bahia) and Delta Camerata Exploratória (Piauí). Rios Filho was a music professor at Federal University of Maranhão (Campus São Bernardo) between 2013 and 2019. Nowadays, he is professor at the Department of Music of the Federal University of Santa Maria, in Rio Grande do Sul.​
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Biografia resumida
Compositor nascido em Salvador, doutor em composição musical pela UFBA, sob orientação do Prof. Paulo Costa Lima.
Dentre outras premiações, em 2015 sua obra Répéter foi laureada com Menção Honrosa no X Boston GuitarFest Composition Competition, em Boston (EUA), em meio a mais de duzentas obras inscritas por compositores de trinta países; em 2014 foi um dos trinta compositores selecionados pela FUNARTE, através de votação, para receber encomenda de obra inédita, estreada durante a XXI Bienal de Música Brasileira Contemporânea, no Rio de Janeiro, em 2015; em 2011, foi um dos ganhadores do I NE/BAM Brazilian Composers Competition, na Holanda.
Suas obras têm sido apresentadas em diversos estados brasileiros, além de Portugal, Venezuela, Argentina, Holanda, Alemanha, EUA, Espanha, Rússia, Noruega e Suíça. Como compositor, tem colaborado com importantes grupos musicais, como o GNU, ABSTRAI (Rio de Janeiro), Camerata Aberta (São Paulo), Grupo de Percussão da UFBA, Duo Robatto e Camará Ensemble (Bahia), Nieuw Ensemble (Holanda), ICE e Orpheus Ensemble (EUA), Ensemble Modern (Alemanha), e músicos como Lucas Robatto, João Carlos Victor, Cristiano Braga e Luciane Cardassi.
Entre 2009 e 2010, foi professor substituto da Escola de Música da UFBA, lecionando as matérias de composição, harmonia, contraponto e improvisação. É membro-fundador da OCA – Oficina de Composição Agora, fundador e consultor artístico do Camará Ensemble (Bahia), membro fundador da Delta Camerata Exploratória (Piauí). Entre os anos de 2013 e 2019, trabalhou como professor de música da UFMA – Universidade Federal do Maranhão, no Campus de São Bernardo. Atualmente, é professor efetivo do Departamento de Música da Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, no Rio Grande do Sul.
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