The Artists
(in alphabetical order, by surname)
Renato Bandel
- Concert with Unicamp Symphony Orchestra – July 18th, at 7:30 pm
Short biography
Born in Piracicaba-SP, he began his music studies at the age of six, with his mother. Renato has a master's degree in Music from the University of Arts in Berlin.
At the age of 20 he received a scholarship to study at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy. He performed concerts with the orchestra under the baton of Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Seiji Ozawa, Günter Wand, Zubin Mehta, Bernard Haitink, Simon Rattle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt among others, in several European cities. With this orchestra, he made several CD and DVD recordings.
During his seven-year stay in Berlin, he was part of the “Ensemble Oriol Berlin”, performing concerts in Germany, Mexico and Portugal, with renowned international soloists. He also worked as a guest musician at the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon / Portugal). He coordinated the 2009, 2010 and 2011 editions of the Campos do Jordão International Winter Festival. His teaching experience includes USP Ribeirão Preto, Faculdade Cantareira, Conservatório de Tatuí and Instituto Baccarelli.
He served as section leader of important orchestras in Brazil, Osesp, Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo, OSB, among others.
Renato works intensely as a chamber musician and soloist. He participates as a teacher in the most important music festivals in Brazil, such as Campos do Jordão, Curitiba, Poços de Caldas, among others.
He currently works as artistic manager at the Tatuí Conservatory.
Tatjana Mead Chamis
- Gala Concert – July 19th, at 7:30 pm
Short biography
Violist Tatjana Mead Chamis has distinguished her career with successes as a principal violist, chamber musician, soloist, Latin Grammy-nominated recording artist, teacher and lecturer, as well as advocating for underheard or suppressed music and experimenting with new music.
Principal Violist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for the 2018-2024 seasons, Mead Chamis has held the title of Associate Principal Viola of the PSO since 2003. Mead Chamis joined the orchestra in 1993, under the directorship of Lorin Maazel, while still a student of the Curtis Institute of Music, at age 22. She has since been featured on numerous performances as soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra, often premiering or introducing pieces not yet heard in Pittsburgh, such as the Lionel Tertis transcription of Elgar's Cello Concerto, Boris Pigovat’s Requiem for the Holocaust, and Alan Shulman’s Theme and Variations. This coming season, she will perform the viola transcription of Fratres, by Arvo Pärt, with the Pittsburgh Symphony.
In 2015, Mead Chamis formed a string quartet of fellow Pittsburgh Symphony members, the Clarion Quartet, an ensemble dedicated to performing the many works of suppressed and forgotten composers. The Clarion Quartet’s debut album, Breaking the Silence, was released in February of 2018 on the TYE/Naxos label. The quartet has played at the site of the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech Republic, at the Berlin American Academy, on tour in Canada, joined the great baritone Matthias Goerne in concert, and appeared on the Chamber Music Pittsburgh Series with pianist Roman Rabinovich. The quartet began in 2023, a partnership with Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum, featuring a series of concerts over two years, which reach audiences across the globe.
After a year-long sabbatical in 2012, living and performing in Brazil, Mead Chamis returned to the US with Brazilian works for viola, which became the focus of a solo recording project, including a new viola sonata written for her by the great pianist/composer, André Mehmari, which garnered a 2017 Latin Grammy nomination. The album, Viola Brasil, was released in 2022. Mead Chamis and Mehmari will perform his sonata as well as other works from this album as invited artists of the 2024 International Viola Congress, in Brazil.
Mead Chamis performs chamber music and solo recitals in the U.S. and internationally, including various appearances at the Caramoor International Music Festival, Vail's Bravo Festival, Halcyon Chamber Music Festival, and Swananoa Chamber Festival. Apart from her solo performances with the PSO, she has appeared as soloist with the Utah Symphony, Porto Alegre and Sao Paulo Symphony orchestras in Brazil.
American born, Mead Chamis began her musical studies on the violin at age 7 while living in Germany. It was in Salt Lake City, Utah, that she switched to the viola while studying with Mikhail Boguslavsky, co-founder of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. She continued her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Joseph dePasquale, former principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra, graduating in 1994.
Mead Chamis has been a frequent artist/lecturer and teaches orchestral repertoire at Carnegie Mellon University.
André Mehmari
- Gala Concert – July 19th, at 7:30 pm
Short biography
Pianist, arranger and composer, André Mehmari was born in the city of Niterói-RJ on April 22, 1977. André Mehmari had his first contact with music through his mother in Ribeirão Preto-SP. He moved to São Paulo in 1995, when he enrolled in the piano course at ECA-USP. Recognized as one of the most original and complete Brazilian musicians of his generation and awarded both in the classical and popular areas, his compositions and arrangements were played by many orchestral and chamber groups, including OSESP, OSB, Filarmônica de Minas Gerais, Quarteto da Cidade from São Paulo and Quinteto Villa-Lobos.
In addition to a vast discography of more than fifty albums, Mehmari has an active international career as a soloist and has created expressive duos with musicians such as Antonio Meneses, Gabriele Mirabassi, Maria João, Hamilton de Holanda, Ná Ozzetti, Maria Bethânia and Mônica Salmaso.
In November 2022, he had the premiere of his Brazilian Portals at Carnegie Hall in New York, a series of compositions for different formations that portray Brazilian culture and soul.
In 2023 he was chosen by the Concerto magazine jury for the Grand Prix as musician of the year, after several important debuts in the field of opera and concert music.
He performed in countries such as Italy, USA, Japan, China, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Norway, Holland, Finland, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Denmark and in venues such as Salle Gaveau (Paris), Kennedy Center (Washington), Lincoln Center (New York), Umbria Jazz, Sala São Paulo and Sala Cecilia Meirelles, among many others.
Georgina Rossi
- Recital – July 20th, at 7:30 pm
Short biography
Georgina Isabel Rossi is a Chilean-American classical violist. Her 2020 album, Mobili: Music for Viola and Piano from Chile (New Focus Recordings), with pianist Silvie Cheng, was praised as “expertly played” (WQXR), “a startling new recording” (CVNC Journal), and “one of my favorite discoveries of the year” (KDFC’s Brian Lauritzen). Her sophomore album with Cheng, Chorinho: Music for Viola and Piano from Brazil (PARMA Recordings), was released in August of 2023 with support from the NYC Women's Fund, the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and was declared “captivating” and “(with a blend of musical styles) deftly handled by Rossi” (BBC Music Magazine).
A dedicated pedagogue, she is on the music faculty of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile - Instituto de Música), where she teaches viola, chamber music, and orchestral repertoire for strings. Ms. Rossi has given master classes at institutions across Latin America and the United States, including the Universidad de La Serena, the online-based International Viola Academy (@viola.academy) and the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, WI. A sought-after soloist and chamber musician, she has performed as soloist with the Orquesta de Cámara de Chile and with the Orquesta Sinfónica Universidad de Cuyo. She is also on the faculty for the 2024 Armonia Sinfin Music Festival, in Loja, Ecuador.
Born and raised in Santiago, Rossi is a product of the Chilean national youth orchestra program (F.O.J.I.). Her first teacher was her mother, violist Penelope Knuth, and she moved to the U.S. to attend Interlochen Arts Academy. She holds a Master’s from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Roger Tapping, a Bachelor’s from the Manhattan School of Music, and is a Fellow of the Toronto, Bowdoin, and Kammermusik Akademie Hohenstaufen international festivals. Rossi is a former member of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, where she held the Wes & Chloe Horton chair.
She plays an Argentinean viola by Leonardo Anderi from 2014, and her bow is a Christian Whilhelm Knopf. She is passionate about painting and trained by Chilean artist Susana Larraín and at the Art Students League of New York. She lives between New York and Santiago de Chile with her partner and their cat, Duquesa.
Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot
- Concert with Orquestra de Jundiaí – July 17th, at 7:30 pm
- Masterclass – July 19th, at 1pm
Short biography
The Viennese-born violist Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot, former student of Siegfried Führlinger (Vienna) and Heidi Castleman (USA), is known as a violist of exceptional qualitity. She is full professor (tuitulaire) of viola and chamber music at the Université de Montréal, Canada, as well as on the faculties of the Orford Music (Festival Quebec), the TTT Project (teach teachers teach) in Villaricca,Chile and the Sarasota International Music Festival (USA). She also has taught at the Perlman Music Programm (PMP) , the Heifetz International Music Institute (Virginia) ), and the North American Viola Institute (NAVI).
She is reknown for her performances of rare late-romantic viola repertoire. Her solo CDs, entitled “Alto Romantic Fantasies” (works by Ph. Scharwenka, C.Reinecke, R. Fuchs, J. Joachim – Eclectra ECCD-2060) and « German Romantic Works » (sonatas by R.Fuchs, E. Naumann, F. Kiel, R.Schumann – Fidelio FIDC 018) have both been acclaimed in Fanfare magazine with praise :“Here the viola shines with as much fire as a passionate violin, cries with as much desperation as a cello, entices, seduces, and convinces the listener that no string instrument could be more versatile or beautiful.”
She also has recorded on CD (Centrediscs CMCCD21515) the viola concerto written specifically for her by Tim Brady with the Nova Scotia Symphony orchestra in 2015.
In 2017 Jutta won the German Best Edition Prize 2017 for her re-edition of 13 of the French “Pièces de Concours” (written from 1896-1940) published by Schott in 3 volumes (ED 22254-56). Her new double CD “Pièces de Concours.- Virtuosic romantic works by French composers” (Navona NV6065) has gotten rave reviews from Fanfare magazine as well as from the Strad Magazine, Das Orchester (Germany) , La Szena Musicale (Québéc) Infodad, Kathodik (Italy) and the Classical Modern Music Review.
Jutta has vast experience as a chamber musician, having been part of the Quatuor Claudel String Quartet, the Kegelstatt Clarinet/vla/pno Trio, the Montreal String Trio, the Wiener Nonet, the Ensemble La Piéta, the Ondine Piano Quartett and currently the Puchhammer-Desjardins Duo (vla/pno). Her participation in diverse festivals has permitted her to play with various artists of international reputation such as John Perry, André Laplante, Anton Kuerti, Caecilia Boschman, Chantal Juillet, Janos Starker, Laurence Lesser, Rudolf Leopold, Thomas Selditz, André Moisan Alain Trudel and Robert Langevin.
Jutta regularly gives masterclasses at the Juilliard School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music (USA), the Cleveland Institute(USA), the University of Vienna, the University of Rotterdam, the Hautes Ecoles de Musique de Genève et de Lausanne in Europe as well as the Conservatoires Supérieures de Musique de Lyon and CRR in Paris.
She has also given masterclasses and a recital in the Primrose memorial Series at Brigham Young University, Provo (USA) in spring 2017.
Jutta was the Principal Violist of the Laval Symphony orchestra for 20 years until 2017; she was president of the Canadian Viola Society (CVS) from 2006-2014, and has been president of the International Viola Society (IVS) since 2020. She has been awarded the Maurice Riley prize for international achievement and recently the IVS “Silver Alto Clef”, the highest distinction given by the IVS.
Jennifer Stumm
- Closing Concert – July 21st, at 7:30 pm
Short biography
Violist and director Jennifer Stumm blazes a courageous creative path with diverse projects mixing sheer musical enthusiasm with boundary-breaking artistic direction and committed advocacy for social equity. Known for the “opal-like beauty" (Washington Post) of her sound, Jennifer appears on the world’s great stages like Carnegie Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, Kennedy Center, and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. She is winner of the William Primrose, Geneva and Concert Artist Guild competitions (and the first violist ever to win first prize.) The 2022-23 season brings appearances at festivals around the world, Jennifer’s debut in the large hall of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, solo tours of Ireland and the UK and a new album with São Paulo Chamber Soloists. She also makes her Lucerne Festival debut, as both director and violist in a new staged program from Ilumina called “The Nature of Light.”
Jennifer is founder and director of Ilumina, the São Paulo-based artist collective and social equity initiative, which has ascended rapidly to prominence as a modern model for 21st century creativity and the advancement of diverse talent. Ilumina unites leading international soloists with the best rising talent from Latin America, working and performing side-by-side at the Ilumina festival and on tour around the world, with the goal that worthy talent receives an equal chance to shine. Ilumina young artists regularly study at leading international universities and have entered the highest echelons of the field. Jennifer’s flair for curation and stage direction has received much attention, and Ilumina concerts invite listeners to be immersed in dynamic musical worlds, steadfastly committed to interpretation, powered by the freshness and energy of cultural exchange.
Jennifer is in much demand as a speaker about diversity, talent development and the future. She regularly interacts with the innovation and technology sector about how artistic thinking can impact progress, productivity and the world of ideas. She was invited to speak at NASA’s Cross Industry Innovation Summit in Houston and is a member of the Ecosystems 2030 collective, working with global thinkers on what the future will look like. Her viral TEDx talk about the viola and the blessings of being different, “The Imperfect Instrument,” was named an editor’s pick of all TED talks and led to a solo debut at the Berlin Philharmonie.
Jennifer has released two celebrated solo albums. Her debut recording for Naxos’ Laureate Series featured works by Italian composer/violist Alessandro Rolla, hailed as "an absolutely phenomenal display of virtuoso viola playing" (The New Recordings.) She next released her album of Berlioz's Harold In Italy and performed the work in her unique staging and characterization almost fifty times. A recipient of the prestigious BBC New Generation artist and Borletti Buitoni Trust awards for her work in chamber music, she appears at major festivals such as Verbier, Marlboro, Stavanger, Spoleto, Aldeburgh, Delft and IMS Prussia Cove and regularly appears with Spectrum Concerts Berlin and as a trio with cellist Jens-Peter Maintz and Kolja Blacher.
Jennifer Stumm is Professor of Viola at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, International Chair of Viola Studies at the Royal College of Music, London and gives masterclasses around the world. Since her school days teaching strings in the Atlanta inner city, she has devoted considerable time to supporting young musicians from culturally and economically diverse backgrounds, both in person and online.
Born in Atlanta, Jennifer first heard the viola when she was eight and, enchanted by its sound, began playing in her school's orchestra. She studied with Karen Tuttle at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, with Nobuko Imai in Amsterdam as well as with Steven Isserlis at IMS Prussia Cove, and also pursued interests in politics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jennifer plays a Gasparo da Salò viola, 1589, generously on loan from a private trust.
The Brazilian Violists Association is a non-profit association created in 2014. We aim to bring together professional violists, teachers, students and amateurs from all over Brazil.
Our objective is to promote and value the artistic quality of the entire violist class, individually and collectively.