Simone Menezes

Simone Menezes is a Brazilian/Italian conductor.

Born in Brasilia, she began her piano studies at the age of 7 and later the flute at the age of 11. Simone comes from an intellectual family, raised in Campinas, Brazil.

Simone Menezes completed her undergraduate studies at Unicamp - State University of Campinas (Brazil) and was a student of John Neschling, accompanying his work with the Symphonic Orchestra of the State of São Paulo. Still a student, at the age of 20, she was at the helm of a group of young musicians which became the Young Symphony Orchestra of Campinas. This orchestra later gained national repercussion in Brazil, having obtained sponsorship from Petrobrás Cultural. Also in this period she was assistant conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the State University of São Paulo, OSUSP.

In 2006, thanks to a grant from FAPESP, Simone Menezes managed to travel to Europe where she accompanied several contemporary music groups such as the Remix Ensemble (Portugal) and the Ensemble Multilaterale (Paris), exploring the conducting of contemporary repertoire. She received a scholarship from École Normale de Musique de Paris, where she obtained the Diplome Superieur de Direction d'Orchestre after only one year of study (2007-2008), instead of the regular three year course. During this same period she also attended private lessons with Maestro Colin Metters in London. After returning to Brazil in 2008, she won the Unicamp Symphony Orchestra Competition, taking the position of chief conductor of this orchestra where she stayed until 2012. During this period, she restructured the orchestra together with CDMC Brasil and CIDDIC, working together with the composer Denise Garcia. This orchestra regularly performed in dance, theatre, technology and music projects in partnership with groups like Lume. In 2011, the Orchestra was nominated for the APCA Award for the project "Panorama of Brazilian Music" as the best project of the year 2011. Still as conductor of the Unicamp Symphony Orchestra, Simone recorded the CD - Novos Universos Sonoros, involving musicians from 8 Brazilian universities. Understanding the need to create a group which would be a reference in the interpretation of the Brazilian and Latin repertoire, she founded in 2012 Camerata Latino Americana, a group initially residing in São Paulo. She leaves Unicamp. The group quickly gained notoriety as a reference group of quality, performing in several cities and in the main Brazilian concert halls and recorded a CD-book entitled Contemporary Brazilian Suite. In 2013 she is invited to the Järvi Academy, where she studied with maestro Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Leonid Grin and Gennady Rozhdestvensky. After the festival, she was accepted by maestro Paavo Järvi for a fellowship partially funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture and partly by a support from the German Embassy in Brazil. Between 2015 and 2016, she assisted Paavo Järvi in several concerts with some of Europe's leading orchestras such as Paris Orchester, Deutsch Kammerphilharmonie de Bremen, Wiener Symphoniker, among others.

In 2016 she founded, together with the Brazilian pianist Sonia Rubinsky, the International Villa-Lobos Project, a project that aims to promote Villa-Lobos and Brazilian concert music internationally through strategic actions linked to Brazilian artists and international entities. In 2017, establishes residency in France and defining her artistic mission to internationally disseminate, in addition to the standard repertoire, the Brazilian and Latin American repertoire. In addition, regularly conducts contemporary music, having premiered more than 30 works, being invited by Funarte to conduct its commissions made by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture.

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