Fabio Costa (conductor)

Fábio Costa (São Paulo, 1971) is a Brazilian-born conductor and composer.

Fabio Costa speaks to audience during a symphonic concert.

Background

Fabio Ciglioni Martins Costa was born in São Paulo, Brazil, to an engineer and a psychologist, with family roots in Portugal and Italy (Costa is a dual Brazilian/Italian citizen) and was partly raised in Germany (1982–1984). His grandfather Waldemar Ciglioni was a popular radiophonic actor, and great-grandfather Armando Ciglioni, a neapolitan-song composer/impresario and violinist at São Paulo Opera House.

Costa started out musically self-taught at age 8 (piano and composition) deciding by age 14 to become a professional musician; a year of horn studies was then followed by oboe studies at age 16 and 8 years of professional activity as an orchestral oboist, chamber musician and soloist.

Costa won the 1995 Conducting Competition of the São Paulo Symphony and debuted subsequently as a conductor with that orchestra. After a year of oboe studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Budapest (1995–1996) _video, Costa went on to pursue a career as a conductor.

Between 1996–1999 Costa studied at the Vienna Music Academy (opera and orchestral conducting, class Uros Lajovic) with a special scolarship of the Brazilian Government; he was also coached by Kurt Masur _video (São Paulo 2001 and 2003), Leonard Slatkin and Murry Sidlin (National Conducting Institute, Washington DC, 2001) and Gianluigi Gelmetti (Accademia Chigiana, Siena Italy, 2005).

Conductor

Fabio Costa, Brazilian-born conductor, is interview by TV crew after open-air concert in Montes Claros, MG, Brazil, in April 2008.

Fabio Costa began his professional career (Ribeirão Preto, Brazil) with a schedule of about 25 symphonic concerts over the 1999/2000 season, and as Associate Conductor of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra and Director of Orchestras at Eastern Washington University – positions he held until 2003 – he conducted over 80 concerts, with a total audience estimated at about 70.000 people _video.

Acting mainly as a guest conductor between 2004 and 2007, he appeared with the Orquestra Petrobrás Sinfonica, São Paulo University Orchestra, Paraná State Orchestra _video, São Paulo City Youth Orchestra (Orquestra Experimental de Repertório),^[1] São Paulo State Youth Orchestra, São Paulo Radio Orchestra (extinct)^[2] _video Orquestra Amazonas Filarmônica, Mendoza Symphony Orchestra.^[3][4]

Between 2008 and 2009, Costa participated in establishing the Minas Gerais Philharmonic, a major Brazilian orchestra, as its Associate Conductor. In that position, he conducted over 60 concert performances that took place throughout federal state of Minas Gerais _video. This effort reached an audience of over 80.000 people, in over 30 locations statewide, mostly with cost-free access to the public at large,^[5][6][7] including a relevant number of under-privileged communities in various state regions.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]} Costa has conducted over 300 performances to an estimated audience of over 150.000 attendants.

As concert and opera conductor, Costa took part in productions of Le Nozze Di Figaro; Zauberflöte (coaching, Vienna Music Academy) "The Metamorphosis", (coaching and conducting, Vienna Music Academy); Gianni Schicchi, La Gioconda, Othello, Werther (coaching, Manaus Opera House), Fosca (Carlos Gomes – coaching and conducting, Manaus Opera House), Macbeth (coaching, conducting^[22] – Palacio das Artes, Belo Horizonte) _video.

Composer

Among his compositional works, the choral work of humanistic and socio-environmental content "Psalms for the Earth" has been awarded the 2008 Composition Prize of the Brazilian Music Academy (II Prêmio Cláudio Santoro de Composição Musical, 2008); this work already explored higher harmonic limits by employing 11-limit Just Intonation techniques. The work "Excerpt from Meditation" (2009) continued that path, exploring in 19-limit Just-Intonation (through an unequal division of the octave in 120 parts).

In 2010, Costa's orchestral Work "In Four Dimensions" was a winner of the Composition Prize of the Brazilian National Foundation for the Arts (FUNARTE) , within the 2011 Biennale of Brazilian Contemporary Music being performed by the UFF National Symphony Orchestra.

A continued exploration of Just-Intonation included experiments in 13-Limit J.I. such as "O Cravo Brigou com a Rosa" _video+score and a "commercial" soundtrack to "Potsdam in Time-Lapse" (2015) _video.

The problems of enharmony within J.I. systems led Costa to an insight into the possibilities of 31 equal temperament, which allows for good approximation in higher harmonic limits. This resulted in a collaboration ^[23][24] with the Huygens-Fokker Foundation within its Mikrofest 2015 ^[25] at the Muziekgebow aan t'Ij ^[26] in Amsterdam, with a performance of "Aphoristic Madrigals" for SATB soli and Fokker-Organ _video+score by the ensemble Vokalprojekt 31,^[27] especially formed at this occasion.

List of selected works

Piano

12 Bagatelles for Piano – (1996)_video/score
Prelude for Piano– (2002) _video/score
3 Short Polyphonic Pieces for Piano– (1999–2000) _video/score
Eclogue for Piano- (2002)
Etude for Piano– (2003) _video/score
Fuga a 4 for Piano–(2002)
Sospiri– (2003)
Papillon: Brief Life and Death of a Butterfly(2002) _video/score
Valsa Lenta em Tons Terra– (2004)
Second Prelude for Piano– (2006) _video/score

Piano 4 Hands

Fantasia Polifonica Sopra "O Cravo Brigou com a Rosa"

Organ

Prelude-Meditation for Organ(2006) _video/score

Chamber

Prelude and Fugue for Piano, Horn and Violoncello (1987)
2 Lieder for Piano, Oboe and Bariton (1988)
3 Phantasiestücke for Clarinet or Viola and Piano – 1992
Nonett – 1994
3 Late Romantic Songs after Rilke and Trakl– 1996

String Orchestra

Fantasia Polifonica Sopra "O Cravo Brigou com a Rosa"
Sospiri for String Orchestra
Valsa lenta em Tons Terra

String Orchestra and Soloist

Meine Frühverliehene Lieder(Lied, after Rilke), Sopran or Tenor

Orchestra

Der Tod des Dichters (Symphonic Poem nach Rilke) (1991)
Eclogue for Orchestra (2002)
Reminiscences for Orchestra (2004)
Prelude for Orchestra (2007) _video
Essay for Orchestra (2007)

Orchestra and Soloist

"3 Late Romantic Lieder" after Rilke and Trakl for Sopran or Tenor and Orchestra

Choral

"Psalm for the Earth" for SATB solo, Choir SATB, obligato percussion quartet, Organ and Orchestra (2007)
"Aphoristic Madrigals" for SATB and 31-tone Organ (2015) _video+score

References

External links

• Official Website
• Scores at the IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library