Marisa Rezende
Encyclopedia
Personal background
Marisa Rezende was born in Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, the daughter of a doctor (Nunes de Barcellos) and his wife (Costa Pereira) of Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
ancestry. She began playing piano at four without instruction, and began lessons at age five. She studied piano at Escola de Musica in Rio, but her studies were interrupted by marriage. The couple moved in 1964 to Boston, Massachusetts, where her husband worked on a master's degree at MIT.
Rezende had two daughters in Boston, and when the family moved back to Rio in 1967, she had a third daughter before resuming her studies in composition. The family moved to Recife
Recife
Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
, where she worked as a pianist with the orchestra and finished her undergraduate degree. She studied fugue and counterpoint with Morelenbaum and Virginia Fiuza and composition with Padre Jaime Diniz.
Professional background
After graduating, she completed a masters in piano at the University of California, Santa BarbaraUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
, where she studied composition with Peter Fricker and David Gordon
David Gordon
David Gordon is an American author and trainer and early contributor to the development of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.Gordon has helped create and shape the field of NLP since some decades yet. Gordon's main areas of contribution have been the use of therapeutic metaphors, inspired by his work...
. She also completed a doctorate in composition at UCSB, and post-doctoral work at the University of Keele, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. After completing her studies, she took a position at Escola de Musica in Rio teaching composition. In 1989 she helped to found Musica Nova, an organization to premiere new music compositions, working with Rodolfo Caesar and Rodrigo Cicchelli. In 1999 she was awarded the Bolsa Vitae de Artes. She retired from teaching in 2002 but operates the Music and Technology Lab at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and continues work as a composer.
Published works
Rezende has composed for orchestra, chamber ensemble and solo instrument and her compositions been performed internationally. Selected works include:- Volante (1990) for flute, clarinet, cello and piano
- Syntagma (1988) for flute, percussion and piano
- Variations (1995) for flute
- Elos (1995) for harpsichord
- Resonances (1983) for piano
- Mutations (1991) for piano four hands
- Contrasts (2001) for piano
- Vortex (1997) for string quartet
- Schisms (1997) for violin, viola, cello, bass and piano
Her work has been recorded and issued on CD including:
- Marisa Rezende - Música de Câmara (2006)