Paulo Costa Lima

Paulo Costa Lima (born 1954, Salvador-Bahia) is a Brazilian composer and music theorist, whose main interest has been the vivid interaction between composition and culture, including the political aspects of it, namely, composition as a way of resisting cultural colonization. He is a member of the Academia Brasileira de Música (Brazilian Academy of Music, created by Villa-Lobos in 1945). He has received several prizes and commissions, among which the Vitae Foundation (1995), Secult-Ba (2009) and Funarte (2012 and 2014), leading to premieres with Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo (Cabinda: We are black op. 104, 16.04.2015, Sala São Paulo) and Orquestra Neojibá (Sete flechas, um batuque concertante op. 102, 10.10.2015, Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro), two recent examples. His pieces have received more than 400 performances in more than 15 countries with performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Musikhaus, Rode Pompe, Sala Cecilia Meireles and Sala São Paulo. He has published six books, dealing with topics such as the theory and pedagogy of composition, music and psychoanalysis and music analysis of bahian contemporary music and brazilian popular songs.

He belongs to the second generation of the movement initiated by the ‘Group of Composers of Bahia’ that was formed in 1966, launching a one-line manifesto “In principle, we are against all and every asserted principle”. This inclusivity reflects the cultural diversity of Bahia. After studying composition with Jamary Oliveira and Ernst Widmer in Brazil, and Ben Johnston and Herbert Brün at the University of Illinois, USA, he became a professor at the Universidade Federal da Bahia, and held several positions such as Director of the Music School (1988–1992) and Assistant Provost (1996–2002). Since 1992 his compositional interests addressed the rhythmic tradition of Afro-Bahian candomblé, creating universes of hybridization and contradiction, non-sequitur and humor involving Afro-Bahian and Avant-Garde contexts and ideas.

Later he participated in the political life as President of the Fundação Gregório de Mattos (2003–2008), the cultural office of the city of Salvador-Bahia. His administration designed new formats for popular participation such as the Program Mestres Populares da Cultura, which led to the identification and recognition of elderly people with wide knowledge of popular traditions, being considered an important contribution to cultural management in Bahia.

In 2009 he was appointed for the Academia de Letras da Bahia (founded in 1917), and in 2011 a founding member of the Academia de Ciências da Bahia. He defends the idea that teaching, writing (texts and music) and management activities are unified by the compositional challenges they involve, closely connected to the political needs of our times. As a professor of composition he has mentored composers of the new generation in Bahia such as Paulo Rios Filho, Guilherme Bertissolo, Alex Pochat, Túlio Augusto, Pedro Amorim Filho, Vinicius Amaro and Danniel Ferraz.

References

Books

Albums

Artigos

Performances

(1991) Summergarden Festival, New York, Pega essa nêga e chêra! for piano; (Cf. Alex Ross, New York Times);

Works

External links

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