UW Music Faculty Recital Series Features Trio Goinia Oct. 16

Trio Goiânia is the featured guest for the University of Wyoming Department of Music’s Faculty Recital Series at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16, in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts recital hall. The recital is free and open to the public.

Trio Goiânia is composed of Brazilian musicians Alessandro Borgomanero, violin, and Luciano Pontes, viola, along with UW Department of Music Professor Theresa Bogard, piano.

The program will feature Brazilian music for violin, viola and piano. While music by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos is well known in the United States, most of the extensive repertoire by the South American country’s composers remains unknown. The concert will feature works by composers Brenno Blauth, Henrique de Curitiba, Camargo Guarnieri, Marlos Nobre and Flausino Vale.

The music is full of typical Brazilian rhythms and harmonies, and it is influenced by traditional dances and folk music.

Born in Rome, Borgomanero holds a Master of Arts degree from the University Mozarteum Salzburg. He has studied with Boris Belkin, Salvatore Accardo and Rodolfo Bonucci. As a soloist, he has performed with many orchestras -- the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra; London Mozart Players; Berlin Chamber Orchestra; Salzburg Chamber Soloists; Filarmonica del Nisseno; Budapest Festival Orchestra; Orchestra Armonica Temperanza di Roma; Sinfonietta Salzburg; Budapest Strings; Tblisi State Chamber Orchestra; Vaasa Symphony Orchestra; Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra; National Orchestra of Ecuador; Bachiana Philharmonic Orchestra; New York Sinfonietta; Georgian Sinfonietta; and most of the symphony and chamber orchestras of Brazil.

Pontes, a native of Goiânia, Brazil, began playing violin at the age of 15, eventually earning a Bachelor of Music, a Master of Music and a doctorate in cultural performances, all from Goiás University. He has received prizes in international music competitions playing the viola, including Audience Favorite at the Boulder Bach Festival’s World Bach Competition; second prize at the North International Music Competition (Sweden); second prize at King’s Peak International Music Competition; and second prize at the Golden Classical Music Awards International Competition in New York City, where he played in the winner’s concert at Carnegie Hall.

He teaches viola, chamber music and orchestral practice at Goiás University and directs the university’s Jean Douliez Chamber Orchestra.

Bogard, an American pianist, is a versatile performer dedicated to expanding the canon of traditional piano repertoire. Her early career focused on music by women composers, and she continues to include works by other lesser-known composers in her varied programs.

As a recipient of a Fulbright grant, Bogard was able to explore her interest in historical performance practice and fortepiano studying at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands. That same year, she was a top-prize winner in the International Mozart Fortepiano Competition in Bruges, Belgium. Bogard has performed on five continents: in Belgium, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Singapore and throughout the United States.

Her extensive discography includes a wide variety of recordings, ranging from solo piano to chamber music collaborations, from music of living composers to her specialty in fortepiano and historical performance practice. She has served on the faculty of the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy and the Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Music Festival in Germany. She has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute with cellist Misha Quint.

Since her first concert tour in Brazil in 2007, she has become obsessed with music from Brazilian composers. Returning to Brazil whenever possible, she has given master classes and performances at universities in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Goiãnia and Porto Alegre. In 2018, she toured five cities in Brazil with Trio das Nações and will return to the country this year for a recording of works for flute and piano by Brazilian composers.