Biography
Arnaldo de Azevedo Estrella (Rio de Janeiro, March 14, 1908 - Petrópolis, February 21, 1980) was a Brazilian pianist.
He studied at the National School of Music of Rio de Janeiro, where he was a student of Joaquim Antonio Barroso Neto, Oscar Lorenzo Fernández and Tomás Terán. He has been touring since 1935 and, in the 1940s, performed many times in the United States, including with orchestras, under the regency of Eugene Ormandy and Dimitris Mitropoulos.
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Between 1947 and 1952, Estrella lived and worked in Paris. In the 1960s, he performed in the USSR and in other countries of the socialist bloc. He wrote an article about Brazilian music especially for the book Brazil. Economy, Politics, Culture, published in Moscow (1963).
The pianist established a long creative partnership with Heitor Villa-Lobos and was the first performer of several of his works, including the Hommage à Chopin piano cycle (Paris, 1949) and the Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 3 (Rio de Janeiro, 1957 ). Estrella also wrote an important essay on Villa-Lobos, 'Villa-Lobos's string quartets', which was awarded in a contest in 1970
For many years, Estrella taught at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Arnaldo Estrella was married to the violinist Mariuccia Iacovino, with whom he often performed in a duet.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.