Dinorá Gontijo de Carvalho (1 June 1904/5 – 28 February 1980) was a Brazilian pianist, conductor, music educator and composer.

Life

Dinorá de Carvalho was born in Uberaba

Uberaba

Uberaba is a city and municipality in the west of the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Its population is 296.000 with an area of 4529.7 km², giving a density of 60.71 people per km². It is located on a plateau at an elevation of 785 meters and is in the Uberaba River floodplain...

, Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, and began her study of piano at the Conservatorio Musical in São Paulo at age six with Maria Lacaz Machado and Carlino Crescenzo. She made her debut as a pianist at age seven playing Mozart and Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn

Mendelson is a Polish/German Jewish family name, meaning "son of Mendel", Mendel being a Yiddish diminutive of the Hebrew given name Menahem, meaning "consoling" or "one who consoles".Mendelssohn is the surname of a number of people:...

, and later studied with Isidor Philipp

Isidor Philipp

Isidor Philipp was a French pianist, composer, and distinguished pedagogue of Hungarian descent. He was born in Budapest and died in Paris.-Biography:...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 on a Ministry of Culture scholarship. She continued her studies in Brazil with Lamberto Baldi, Martin Brawnvieser, Ernest Mehelich and Camargo Guarnieri

Camargo Guarnieri

Mozart Camargo Guarnieri was a Brazilian composer.-Name:He was registered at birth as Mozart Guarnieri, but when he began a musical career, he decided his first name was too pretentious and subject to puns. Thus he adopted his mother's maiden name Camargo as a middle name, and thenceforth signed...

.

After completing her studies, Carvalho worked as a pianist, composer, conductor and music educator. She became the first woman member of the Brazilian Academy of Music and became the first woman Brazilian maestro, founding an all-woman orchestra, the Orquestra Feminina de São Paulo. Her work Missa Profundis received first prize for Best Vocal Work of 1977 from the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte. She died in São Paulo.

Works

Carvalho composed for solo instruments, chorus, choir and orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano and orchestra, symphony orchestra, theater and ballet. Selected works include:

• A ti, flor do céu (Text: Theodomiro Alves Pereira)
• Acalanto (Text: Cleómenes Campos)
• Água que passa (Text: Paulo Lébeis Bonfim)
• Ausência (Text: Suzana de Campos)
• Bamboleia
• Banzo (Text: Menotti del Picchia)
• Berceuse (Text: José de Freitas Valle)
• Canção do embalo (Text: Cecília Benevides de Carvalho Meireles)
• Canção ingênua (Text: Milton Vaz de Camargo)
• Carmo (in Estampas de Vila Rica) (Text: Carlos Drummond de Andrade)
• Coqueiro-coqueirá (Text: Volkslieder)
• Ê-bango-bango-ê (Text: Volkslieder)
• Epigrama número 9 (Text: Cecília Benevides de Carvalho Meireles)
• Espelho (Text: Jandyra Sounis Carvalho de Oliveira)
• Ideti (Text: Dioscoredes dos Santos)
• Instantâneo do adeus (Text: Elza Heloísa)
• Menino mandú (Text: Volkslieder)
• Mosaico (Text: Geraldo Vidigal)
• Noite de São Paulo (Text: Guilherme de Almeida)
• Num imbaiá (Text: Volkslieder)
• O ar (Text: Paulo Lébeis Bonfim)
• O fogo (Text: Paulo Lébeis Bonfim)
• O pipoqueiro (pregão)
• Onde estás (Text: Alice Camargo Guarnieri)
• Pau-piá (Text: Volkslieder)
• Perdão (Text: Milton Marques)
• Pobre cego (Text: Volkslieder)
• Presença (Text: Jandyra Sounis Carvalho de Oliveira)
• Quem sofre (Text: Menotti del Picchia)
• Quibungo te-rê-rê (Text: Volkslieder)
• Quinguê-lê (Text: Volkslieder)
• Samaritana (Text: Paulo Lébeis Bonfim)
• São Francisco de Assis (in Estampas de Vila Rica) (Text: Carlos Drummond de Andrade)
• Sinal de terra (Text: Cassiano Ricardo)
• Sum-sum (Text: Volkslieder)
• Teu rosto azul (Text: Fúlvia Lopes de Carvalho)
• Uai ni-nim (Text: Volkslieder)
• Último retrato (Text: Maria A. Franquini Neto)
• Velas ao mar (Text: Alberto de Oliveira)