|
The Brazilian pianist, Arthur Villar, started his studies in piano, chamber music, theory and conducting in 2004, at the age of 21, at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and joined the piano studio of Miriam Grosman, a renowned Brazilian pianist and pedagogue. One year later, Arthur Villar gave his first piano recital with the complete Well Tempered Clavier book 1 (BWV 846-869) by J.S. Bach and since then he has been performing, with great success, the 24 preludes and fugues in several cities in Brazil, USA, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland. Among his achievements, he won the first prize in the Souza Lima National Piano Competition in São Paulo (Brazil), in 2007, for his piano performing and musical excellence and performed in 2009 J.S. Bach’s twenty-four preludes and fugues at the Forum Internacional del Piano de Barcelona.
In the January 2005 Arthur Villar met the pianist Luiz de Moura Castro, with whom he began to study regularly since then. After a few master-classes and individual lessons, in February 2008 Villar was granted a scholarship to pursue his Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance at the internationally acclaimed Hartt School (University of Hartford, CT) under the tutelage of Professor Luiz de Moura Castro. While at the Hartt School, Villar has furthered his studies in musical analysis and composition with professors Michael Schiano, Partick Miller, Kenneth Nott and Larry Alan Smith.
Arthur Villar has attended both master-classes and individual classes with renowned pianists throughout the world, such as Paul Badura-Skoda (Austria), Boris Berman (Russia), Ian Jones (England), Florence Millet (France), Irina Plotnikova (Russia), Eduardo Monteiro (Brazil), Vitaly Margulis (Ukraine), Alexandre Dossin (Brazil), Rita Nuller (Russia), Paul Ostrovsky (Russia) and Inessa Zarestsky (Russia).
Arthur Villar has maintained an active schedule of concerts that includes venues such as Centre Le Phenix in Fribourg (Switzerland), SIPO in Obidos (Portugal), Forum Internacional del Piano in Barcelona (Spain), American Museum of Modern Art in New Britain (US), Teatro Municipal de Sao Joao del Rei in Minas Gerais (Brazil), EMESP in Sao Paulo (Brazil), among others. In 2012, Villar graduated from the Hartt School of Music and currently lives in Connecticut, USA. Most recently he recorded the first book of the famous Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach. The 24 preludes and fugues album was recorded between September and November (2012) and was released in February 2013. Villar is recipient of the following scholarships and awards: E.B. Storrs Scholarship, Hartt Performing Arts Scholarship and F. Parker Scholarship. |
