English

Biography

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Luiz De Simone started taking piano lessons in 1988. In 1990, he became a student in the Brazilian Conservatory of Music and had his whole academic life fully supported by a Montreal Bank scholarship. He received his Bachelor degree in Piano in 1998. Recently he concluded the postgrad in Film Music in the same institution.

Luiz joined master classes with several great pianists, such as Luiz Carlos de Moura Castro (Brazil), Fany Solter (Brazil), Luís Medalha (Brazil), Arnaldo Cohen (Brazil), Almerindo D’Amato (Italy), Caterina Vassaturo (Italy), Daniel Shapiro (USA) e Rudolf Kehrer (Russia).

Awarded in Brazilian piano competitions, the pianist has played in some of the most important concert rooms in Rio de Janeiro. With almost 300 presentations in his curriculum, he has toured around his country, playing in more than 30 cities all over Brazil and performed in every edition of Liszt Festival, in Rio de Janeiro.

In 2004, the young musician recorded his first piano solo album with his own compositions, called EP-Essays at the Piano. The album was released in Brazil and France and since then he started his concerts in Europe. He was there in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, including cities such as Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Köln, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Wien, among others.

He has recorded interviews and programs for the main Brazilian TV stations and for the MEC-FM Radio (Ministry of Education and Culture’s radio), which plays mainly classical music and where his solo composition “Muse” has been already featured as the most asked by the listeners.

In his last presentations, there has been a mix of all his music experience and in his concerts we can find not only the traditional classical repertory, but also his own compositions for solo piano. This eclectic approach has made him one of the musicians with the most and youngest audience in Rio de Janeiro.

He is currently working on promoting the CD EP-Essays at the Piano, with a new upcoming European tour in the first half of 2008, and teaching piano at the Brazilian Conservatory of Music and at the LA Center of Music and Technology, both in Rio de Janeiro.

Testimonials

“Baffling feeling and musicality. That’s what Brazilian pianist Luiz De Simone and his beautiful compositions offered to the crowd of Lyon, in a sold out concert at the Église Saint Eucher, in Croix-Rousse. I can’t remember the last time I felt so touched in a piano solo recital and sincerely hope to see this singular artist once again in his 2006 tour.”
Pascale Bornibus
Journal Le Progrés de Lyon

“Luiz De Simone is more than a pianist, more than a composer. He is a complete artist, fascinating everyone with his art, presence, charisma and, obviously, his music. I am proud to have released his CD through my label, not only for the music in it, but also because of the strong effect that it provokes in people. He is a very important voice in the brazilian musical scene.”
Sergio Roberto de Oliveira
Composer, Musical Producer, Director of A Casa Discos

“Luiz De Simone is not another promise of Brazilian pianism. He’s a brilliant reality and shows all his talent in careful interpretations, replete with vivacious musicality, developed through the technical rigor of the true artists.”
Lauro Gomes
Artistic director of MEC-FM radio in Rio de Janeiro.

“I followed Luiz De Simone in part of his tour throughout France in 2005. Each concert was marked by different places, people and circumstances, but had in common the same success in presence of an audience that showed its excitement and commotion in the face of Luiz’s compositions and interpretations of classical repertoire. I’m thankful for being able to witness such exceptional moments and hope to renew these experiences soon enough.”
Jean-François Perrier
Honorary Consular of Brazil in Lyon

“For his exceeding qualities, Luiz De Simone beset unquestionably in a limelight of the new generation of Brazilian pianists.”
Luiz Henrique Senise
Piano Professor at the UFRJ (Rio de Janeiro Federal University)

“The 2005 concerts of Luiz De Simone in Munich were crowned with great success. Luiz amazed and touched the audience with his own compositions, revealing himself as not only a great pianist but as a superb composer.”
Suzanna Gebauer
President of Munich’s Deutsch-Brasilianischer Kulturverein

“I’ve been praising with excitement the talent of Luiz De Simone, to whom I thank the stunning interpretations of my Study #1 and whose high level performances have only corroborated his name as one of the revelations of national pianism.”
José Vieira Brandão
President of the Brazilian Conservatory of Music (in memoriam)

“I attended both concerts by Luiz De Simone in Munich in 2005 and was very surprised and moved by being able to behold a new creative voice emerging in Brazilian concert music. The pianist and his compositions deserved the enthusiastic ovations that followed the performance of each piece.”
Vera Fraeb
Vice Consular of Brazil in Munich

“The Espace Musical Musiques et Ondes is not able to hold another recital of the brazilian pianist Luiz De Simone. If we have the pleasure to host him again in 2007, we must schedule two evenings in a row to satisfy the search for his performance ever since he played here last year (2005) and after his memorable recital on october 20th, 2006. Congratulations for your Art, Luiz, magical and unique. Get ready to come to Toulouse again next year!”
Jerome Foucault – director of the Espace Musiques et Ondes (Toulouse, France)

“What a Memorable recital the brilliant young composer and pianist Luiz De Simone performed in Paris in December, 2004. It was such a fulfilling satisfaction having met such a singular talent as Luiz, who represents the potential, wealth and the ever-renewing colors of Brazilian music.”
Ruy Amaral
Cultural Counselor of the Brazilian Embassy in Paris

“Luiz De Simone performed a different and intimistic recital at Bechstein Pianos here in Frankfurt, on october 4th, 2006. Everyone was surprised with the high quality music of this young composer (all his CDs were sold out!) and also with the stories he told to the audience in german, even without knowing the language - all the speeches were memorized previously! It was a really brilliant and amazing night. Thanks to the wonderful music, charisma and simplicity of this young and talented musician, we at the Frankfurt Center of Brazilian Culture will always be ready to support him in upcoming performances, whenever we have the pleasure to receive Luiz again here in Frankfurt.”
Tomaz Tauscher – director of Frankfurt Center of Brazilian Culture

International Recitals (2004/2005/2006/2007)

Piano Solo Tour - EUROPE 2004
29/nov – Lyon, France
02/dec – Lyon, France
12/dec – Paris, France
13/dec – Paris, France

Piano Solo Tour - EUROPE 2005
27/may – Toulouse, France
29/may – Paris, France
17/jun – Munich, Germany
19/jun – Munich, Germany
26/jun – Weingarten, Germany
30/jun – Lyon, France

Piano Solo Tour - EUROPE 2006
24/sep – Munich, Germany
04/oct – Frankfurt, Germany
11/oct – Lyon, France
16/oct – Berlin, Germany
19/oct – Paris, France
20/oct – Toulouse, France

Piano Solo Tour - EUROPE 2007
26/sep – Stuttgart, Germany
05/oct – Munich, Germany
10/oct – Frankfurt, Germany
12/oct – Hamburg, Germany
17/oct – Berlin, Germany
19/oct – Vienna, Austria
21/oct – Freiburg, Germany
22/oct – Lyon, France
24/oct – Cologne, Germany
26/oct – Paris, France