Flutist, composer, author and educator Fernando Brandão has performed extensively as a bandleader, sideman, chamber musician and as a soloist with several ensembles and prominent orchestras both in his native Brazil and the US. Using concert, alto, bass flutes and pífanos, Fernando performs across an eclectic repertoire of traditional and contemporary choros, sambas, bossas, frevos, ijexás, baiões, maracatus and other styles, allying jazz improvisations to an authentic Brazilian sound. He leads his own ensemble with formations that varies from Trio to Nonet, the bands Alma (contemporary South American music) and Bohemia Carioca (gafieira), and he is an active member of the groups Pablo Ablanedo Octet and Trio Choro Brasil.
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He has produced and co-produced 5 CDs, and his latest, Sem Tradução (Without Translation) features nine original songs with lyrics by carioca poet Pedro Lago, by Fernando Brandão, Rosangela Santiago and Robson Santiago, both from Bahia. It also features Marcella Camargo as the lead singer and 14 prominent musicians from the Boston area. His vocal and instrumental compositions are centered mostly around Brazilian styles, and feature traditional and contemporary language and arrangements. His compositions have been recorded by Choro das Três, guitarist Almir Cortes and New World Guitar Trio.
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As bandleader and soloist, he has been featured at the First Cambridge Jazz Festival, the Beantown Jazz Festival, the Isabella Gardner Museum, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Jordan Hall, Pickman Hall, Berklee Performance Center, National Repertory Orchestra Festival in Colorado, White Mountains Jazz and Blues Festival in New Hampshire, Artes de las Americas Festival in New Mexico, The 1st Upstate New York Jazz Festival, Schubert Festival, Music of Latin America Festival, First Night of Boston, National Flute Association, and several universities and colleges across New England and the US. In Brazil, he has been featured at Festival Villa-Lobos, Bienal de Música Contemporânea, Casa do Choro, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Sala Cecília Meirelles, Sala Guiomar Novaes, Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, All of Jazz in São Paulo, MASP in São Paulo, MAM in Rio de Janeiro, Palácio das Artes Belo Horizonte, among other venues.
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He has also played or recorded with Pablo Ablanedo Octet, Sergio Brandão and Manga Rosa, Brasileirinho, Guinga, Ivan Lins, Rosa Passos, Joyce Moreno, Oscar Castro-Neves, Toninho Horta, Filó Machado, Altamiro Carrilho, Leni Andrade, Kris Adams, John Stein Quartet, Matthew Nicholl and Michael Farquharson, Rogério Souza, Kiko Horta, Jurandir Santana, Marcos de Carvalho, Lupa Santiago, Paulo Sérgio Santos, Maria Teresa Madeira, Bill Pierce, George Garzone, Choro Democrático, Bruno Räberg Nonet, Leandro Braga, Noel Devos, Quarteto de Cordas de São Paulo, Emmanuel Music Orchestra with conductors Craig Smith, Seiji Ozawa, and pianist Russell Sherman as soloist.
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Mr. Brandão is a Professor at Berklee College of Music and a faculty member of the Community Music Center of Boston, both where he’s been teaching for over 20 years.
A leading educator in Brazilian music, he has given many lectures about its music styles, history and composers, and he is the author of the play-along book Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Jazz Conception, published by Advance Music.
He was the first prize winner of several national music competitions in Brazil, and the 1991 Pappoutsakis Flute Competition in Boston.
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