ArtistInfo

Simone Leitão

p, BR
Musician of Classical

Born in Caratinga, State of Minas Gerais, in 1970, Simone Leitão belongs to the lineage of great Brazilian female classical pianists that achieved worldwide acclaim, along with Magda Tagliaferro and Guiomar Novaes. Leitão is the founder and artistic director of Academia Jovem Concertante (Touring Youth Orchestra Academy) and Rio International Chamber Music Week, since 2012. She holds a doctorate degree of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Musicology by the University of Miami Frost School of Music, USA; Master of Music in Piano Performance by the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and Bachelors degree in Music by the University of Rio. She was a student of Ivan Davis in the USA (pupil of Horowitz), Geir Braaten in Norway, and Linda Bustani in Brazil. Simone Leitão keeps a very busy schedule with over 40 concerts a year and annually performs in major halls such as Canergie Hall, São Paulo Symphony Hall, Cecília Meireles Hall, Knight Concert Hall etc. She has collaborated with such conductors as Eduardo Marturet, Apo Hsu, Ricardo Castro, Daniel Guedes, Luiz Fernando Malheiro, and Guilherme Bernstein, to name a few. She has recorded a solo recital for the MSR label in 2011, which has received a series of rave reviews in the USA and Brazil. She has toured China, and tours Brazil with orchestra at least twice a year, since 2012. Her 2013 Brazilian tour playing Rachmaninoff no. 2 and Prokofieff no. 1 Concerto with Barra Mansa Symphony Orchestra was the subject of a 50-minute documentary by award-winning film director Katia Lund, and was broadcasted in Brazil's national TV for 10 months. The documentary is titled "Pare, Olhe, Escute" (Stop, Look, Listen.) Simone Leitão is also known for her great interpretations of the music of Bach, Beethoven, Villa-Lobos and Prokofieff. In 2018, she released her second album, recorded in Oslo (Norway), devoted exclusively to Bach. In 2018 Leitão toured the USA, Brazil, Caribe, and South America, and has also performed in London, Paris, Greece, Moscow and Denmark. She was back at Carnegie Hall in January 2019 with her Bach album.