Recognized as one of the most important Brazilian guitar players, Paulo Porto Alegre (Sao Paulo, 1953) interprets a unique repertoire for his instrument ranging from classical music to his refined Beatles, George Gershwin, Pat Metheny, and Ralph Towner arrangements, on top of his own compositions and Brazilian Music. Praised by the specialty critics, Paulo has performed as a soloist with the main orchestras at the biggest Brazilian cities as well as in Canada, U.S., Europe, and Asia, with great conductors as Camargo Guarnieri, Fábio Mechetti, Isaac Karabtchevsky, Andrew Constantine, and others.
Paulo recorded and has interpreted works that have been written for him by composers such as Aylton Escobar, Radamés Gnatttali, Sérgio Assad, Eduardo Fernandez, and Guido Santorsola. He is also recognized and praised for his own compositions including “Quatro Sonatas”, “12 Estudos Populares”, “24 Estudos Modais”, “Suite Brasileira”, and many other Sonatas for duos. Most of his works have been published in Brazil and Germany.
He has recorded as soloist and with a wide range of ensembles, amongst them: “Trio Opus 12” – works for a trio of guitars, “A Queda dos Pássaros” – 20th century solo guitar music, “Trio” – romantic music for Flute, Viola, and Guitar, “Luminamara” and “Sons das Américas” Double CD – contemporary music with the Núcleo Hespérides, “Forrobó” – four guitar music with the ensemble Quaternaglia, “Retratos de Radamés” Double CD – Radamés Gnattali and Núcleo Hespérides chamber music, “Violoes do Brasil” CD and DVD – outlook of the Brazilian guitar with several interpreters, “Varandeio” - authorial solo CD awarded by the Department of Culture of the State of Sao Paulo with ProAC 2012, and released in May 2013 , and ‘Divertimentos’ - Brazilian guitar music with the ensemble Trio Opus 12, also awarded with ProAc 2014 and released in 2015.
Paulo has performed all around Brazil and, he has recorded for Paulus, SESC, EGTA, MEC, and ECM Germany; the last one with the production of Egberto Gismonti. On top of his soloist career, Paulo’s extensive performances as a chamber musician include tours with great interpreters such as Duo Assad, Claudio Cruz, Marcelo Jaffé, Edelton Gloeden, Alceu Reis, Helena Jank, Rosana Lamosa, Quarteto Kodaly, and others.
Paulo won the First Prize of the V International Palestrina Guitar Competition (1979) and III International Guitar Competition of the Villa Lobos Festival (1984). In 1986 he received the Premiere Mention of the XXVIII Concours Internationale for Composition from ORTF (Paris) with the work “Contrastes I”.
Born in Sao Paulo, he studied at the Conservatório Musical Brooklin Paulista under the guidance of Henrique Pinto. His teachers also were Isaías Sávio, Abel Carlevaro, Miguel Angel Girollet and Eduardo Fernandes. In Composition, he studied with Sérgio Vasconcellos Correa, and in Analysis, with Oswaldo Colarusso, Fábio Mechetti, Hans Joachim Koellreuter, and Phillipe Manoury.
He has performed at important music festivals in Brazil, The United States, Europe, and Asia. The festivals include: International Music Festival of Campos do Jordão, International Guitar Festival Palestrina (Porto Alegre), World Guitar Congress (Baltimore – Maryland), IDRIART Music Festival (Beijing – China), and Leo Brower Festival (São Paulo).
In 2013, Paulo was honored alongside Julian Bream at the IV International Guitar Festival “Leo Brouwer” for his significant contribution for the Brazilian guitar community.
He is the founder and current member of the Nucleo Hesperides group (Americas Contemporary Music) and the Trio Opus 12 of guitars, while still teaching as a professor at the Escola de Musica do Estado de Sao Paulo and at the Escola Municipal de Musica de Sao Paulo.
