Bruno Speranza-Martagão is an erudite musician fascinated by and devoted to exploring the multiplicity of musical and artistic expressions. Composer, cellist and lutenist he was born in Nantes, France, in 1977. His grandmother and his great grandmother were amateur pianists who early on introduced him to the magical world of rhythm and sound. He began playing the piano at 7 and soon expanded his musical horizon venturing into the realm of the classical guitar still under his grandmother’s guidance, who mastered this instrument as well. When he was a teenager, his artistic interests shifted to rock and jazz and he played the electric guitar in a band with friends. Later on, he dedicated himself to the classical guitar and was awarded the third prize at the National Guitar Competition Souza Lima in chamber music, in 2001, and, as soloist, the first prize at the Latin American Guitar Competition Rosa Mística, in 2004.
When he returned to France, he studied the cello and played many masterpieces of the symphonic repertoire such as works by J. Brahms, L. von Beethoven, W. A. Mozart, M. Ravel e V. Williams, in addition to performing chamber music parts. At the same time, he devoted himself to the lute, especially to the “vieux ton”-tuned lute. His conception of this instrument is referent to a modern lute that covers not only the ancient music period but the full historical spectrum including classicism and the romanticism. He has made transcriptions of pieces by J. Haydn, E. Grieg and M. Ravel for this instrument.
Since an early age he tried his hand at composition. His creative process highlights his originality. His system of sound reflections, most commonly Nature inspired, involves deconcretization. The pieces “Incandescences”, “Fragment”, “Mouvements et couleurs” and “Prélude et Strophe” are the experimental fruits of his musical sensibility. Two of his pieces, “Miniaturas para quinteto de sopro”, performed by Quinteto Villa-Lobos, and “Imprecisões musicais”, electronic music, were selected to be performed at the XVth and XVIth Biennial of Contemporary Brazilian Music, in 2003 and 2005, while he was still a composition student at UniRio. In his current creative phase, his compositions have become freer and less academic in style. J. S. Bach, H. Villa-Lobos, G. Ligeti, C. Gesualdo and F. de Magalhães are long-term sources of inspiration for him.
He graduated from the Federal University of the state of Rio de Janeiro-UniRio, in 2005, and obtained a Master’s Degree in Composition at the Strasbourg Conservatory in 2011.
Whether composing, or conducting the Orchestre Musique Echo de Muttersholtz or the Chorale Harmonie de Mulhouse, playing the cello or the lute, instruments that became the natural extension of his musicality, Bruno Speranza-Martagão always strives to celebrate the beauty and expressiveness of music.