Marlos Nobre

His eclectic compositional style featured a mixture of classical compositional techniques such as polytonality, atonality and serialism combined with stylistic and conceptual influences from Brazilian traditional and popular music. His diverse approach to composition was enhanced through his studies of prominent composers, including Koellreutter, Guarnieri, Ginastera, Messiaen, Dallapiccola, and Bernstein.

The recorded working language is Portuguese. The field of work recorded is music, piano performance and conducting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are classical. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship, Order of Cultural Merit (Brazil) and Prize Tomás Luis de Victoria.

• Name — Marlos Nobre • Born — 18 February 1939 • Origin — Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil • Died — 2 December 2024 • Place of death — Rio de Janeiro, Brazil • Genre — Classical • Occupation — Conductor, composer, pianist • Years Active — 1948–2024

Nobre was born on February 18, 1939. He studied piano and music theory at the Conservatory of Music of Pernambuco from 1948 to 1959, and composition with H. J. Koellreutter and Camargo Guarnieri. When he received a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation, he pursued advanced studies at the Latin American Center in Buenos Aires, alongside Ginastera, Messiaen, Malipiero, Copland and Dallapiccola. He worked also with Alexander Goehr and Gunther Schuller at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood in 1969, where he met Leonard Bernstein. The same year he studied electronic music at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York.

Nobre was composer-in-residence at the Brahms-Haus in Baden-Baden invited by the Brahms Society, Germany from 1980 to 1981. He held the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1985–86. Nobre was a visiting professor at Yale, the Universities of Indiana, Arizona and Oklahoma and the Juilliard School. He was Music Director of the Radio MEC and the National Symphony Orchestra from 1971 to 1976, the First Director of the National Institute of Music at FUNARTE from 1976 to 1979, and the President of the Brazilian Academy of Music. He was also President of the International Music Council of UNESCO. He was Guest Composer at the University of Georgia and Texas Christian University. In 2000, he received the highest academic awards from the Texas Christian University the "Cecil and Ida Green Honors Professor" and from the Indiana University the "Thomas Hart Benton Medallion".

Nobre was active as a pianist and conductor, having performed and conducted with several orchestras: Suisse Romande Orchestra, Geneve; Collegium Academicum, Switzerland; Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra at Teatro Colón; SODRE Orchestra of Montevideo, Uruguay; the National Orchestras of Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru (National Symphony Orchestra of Peru), Guatemala and all Brazilian Orchestra; the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London; Philharmonic of Nice, France. Nobre was later the Director of Contemporary Music Programs at Radio MEC-FM of Brazil; the President of "Jeunesses Musicales" of Brazil and the President of the Musica Nova Editions of Brazil. Miembro de Número del Colegio de Compositores Latinoamericanos de Música de Arte, fundado por el compositor y director de orquesta Manuel de Elías. Nobre died in Rio de Janeiro on December 2, 2024, at the age of 85.