July | August
INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL FOR SINGERS 2008
José BRANDÃO
born in Oporto, Portugal, and studied in this town with the pianist Helena de Sá e Costa. By the time he finished his Piano diploma at Oporto Music Conservatoire he had already won a 2nd prize at the Portuguese Music Youth National Piano Competition. He then moved to Lisbon to study Musicology at the New University (UNL). Here, he began accompanying singers and realised how much he enjoyed the song repertoire and the nature of the work between
singer and accompanist.
After graduating from the University, he continued working with Portuguese singers-students as well as established artists, and instrumentalists, playing in music schools, singing competitions, master classes and public recitals.
In March 1994, he successfully auditioned at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, motivated by a desire to develop his skills as an accompanist and to study with Graham Johnson. He stayed two years in London, following the post-graduate Piano Accompaniment Course at the Guildhall School, where he studied with Andrew Ball (piano), Gordon Back (chamber music) and Graham Johnson (song accompaniment). In this school he won the award for best accompanist at the 1995 John Ireland Prize and the 1996 Schubert Lieder Prize.
During the following three years he moved to Paris, having previously worked there as a free-lance pianist. He had the opportunity of playing for the singing classes of Noelle Barker, Jacqueline Bonnardot and Régine Crespin. He also attended master classes in song repertoire with Paul Hamburger, Martin Katz and Ruben Lifschitz.
José Brandão currently lives in Lisbon and is teaching at the National Conservatory of Music, where he has been in charge of the Opera Workshop for the last two years. He also teaches at the National Academy for Orchestral Training, where he coaches singers and pianists. He is in regular demand as an accompanist for song recitals.
