Cláudio Santoro

Cláudio Franco de Sá Santoro (23 November 1919 – 27 March 1989) was an internationally renowned Brazilian composer, conductor and violinist.

A native of Manaus, the capital of Amazonas, Santoro started to study violin and piano as a child. His efforts made the Government of Amazonas send him to study at the Conservatório Brasileiro de Música in Rio de Janeiro.

At the age of 18, he was already teaching violin at the conservatory. He was a pupil of Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, a composer who influenced him. He also studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He co-founded and played in the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. His prolific output was mostly instrumental and includes fourteen symphonies, three piano concertos and seven string quartets.

He was invited by the Government of the German Federal Republic for the Program "Resident Artist in West Berlin" (1966/67) and by the Brahms Foundation as Resident Artist of the Brahms House (Baden Baden).

Claudio Santoro died in Brasília in March 1989 at the age of 69 while conducting the rehearsal of a concert scheduled to commemorate the 14 July bicentennial of the French Revolution.

He won a 1948 prize of The Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund at the University of Massachusetts, in Boston (the judges included the composers Igor Stravinski and Aaron Copland).

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