biography
Born in São Paulo in 1962, Flo Menezes studied at the University of São Paulo (USP) between 1980 and 1985, latterly contributing as assistant to the Composition Course of Prof. Willy Corrêa de Oliveira. In the 80ties Flo Menezes was also very active as a pianist and conductor. On 13 April 1984 he conducted the first public performance of the Konzert Op 24 by Anton Webern in Brazil. In 1987 his first book Apoteose de Schönberg, written between 1984 and 1985, was published in São Paulo.
In 1986 he received from Germany a DAAD grant to study with Hans Humpert at the Studio für elektronische Musik of the Musikhochschule Cologne, acting there as a composer between 1986 and 1990, receiving his Diploma in 1989. In 1991 he was based at the Centro di Sonologia Computazionale (CSC) in Padova, Italy, to study computer music, also attending courses in France with Pierre Boulez (in 1988), in Austria with Luciano Berio (1989), in France with Brian Ferneyhough (in 1995) and in Germany with Karlheinz Stockhausen (in 1998). This relationship with Berio has led to a number of research and compositional projects: a Doctorate conducted in Liège under the supervision of Henri Pousseur, a post-doctorate study on Berio's manuscripts at the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Switzerland, an analysis of Visage by Berio, which was granted an award in 1990 at the 1st International Musicology Competition, Italy, an international selection from UNESCO in 1991, in Paris, of the electronic work Contextures I (Hommage à Berio) (1988-89), and the publication in Europe of two books about the music of Berio.
In May 2011, at the age of 49, Flo Menezes received the highest academic degree: Professor Titular at the State University of São Paulo (Unesp).
In 1993, he was also granted with a composition-prize at the TRIMALCA (International Rostrum of Composers in Radio Corporations of Latin America - Argentina) for his electroacoustic piece Profils écartelés (1988) for piano and tape; in 1995, with the Prix Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, for his composition Parcours de l'Entité (1994) for flutes, percussion and tape; in 1996 with the First Prize at the Luigi Russolo International Electroacoustic Music Contest in Italy for A Viagem sobre os Grãos (1993; 1996), for 2 percussion players and tape, which first performance occured at the Carnegie Hall in New York in April of the same year; in 2002 with the Prêmio Cultural Sergio Motta for Colores (Phila: In Praesentia) (2000); in 2003 with Bolsa Vitae de Artes for labORAtorio (1991; 2005; 2003); in 2007, he was awarded the Giga-Hertz-Preis (with Pierre Boulez, Wolfgang Rihm, Horacio Vaggione and others in the Jury) for La Novità del Suono (2006), written for the EOC of Lyon for chamber orchestra and live-electronics.
He obtained commissions and made works in several institutions inside and outside Brazil, among them: Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1989), Fondation Royaumont de Paris (1995), Instituto Cultural Itaú de São Paulo (1998), Fundação Nestlé of Switzerland (2001), Fundação Vitae (2003), GRM of Paris and University of Cologne (Germany) (2004), Kunsthochschule für Medien of Cologne, Germany, Experimentalstudio für akustische Kunst of SWR of Freiburg, EMS (Elektronmusikstudion, Stockholm) etc.
His works have been performed by many distinguished ensembles worldwide: Ensemble Recherche (Freiburg), Ictus (Brussels), New Century Players (Los Angeles), Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain (Lyon), SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, Arditti String Quartett, Contrechamps (Switzerland), Contemporary Chamber Players (Stony Brook, NY), Plural Ensemble (Madrid), Sond'Ar-Te Electric Ensemble (Lisbon), London Sinfonietta, PIAP (São Paulo), Collegium Novum Zürich (Switzerland), Les Percussions de Strassbourg (France), NYNME (New York New Music Ensemble), Spaceship Ensemble (Den Haag, Holand) etc.
In July 1994, he founded the Studio PANaroma de Música Eletroacústica da Unesp, from which he is the Artistic Director, one of the most important studios for electroacoustic music in America and the first one in Brazil to participate on the Forum-IRCAM.
In 1995 Menezes created the CIMESP (International Electroacoustic Music Competition of São Paulo), the first of this genre in Brazil, and in 1996 the BIMESP (International Biennial for Electroacoustic Music of São Paulo). In 1997 he was invited by the GRM and selected as composer in residence at IRCAM, both in Paris, also making his Livre-Docência (degree after the Doctorate) about the Actual Aesthetics of Electroacoustic Music, published in 1999 in São Paulo.
In 1999 and 2001 Stockhausen invites him to become Professor of Analysis of the Stockhausen's works at the Stockhausen-Kurse Kürten, Germany. In 2004-05 he becomes Visiting Professor at the University of Cologne, Germany.
In July 2002, Flo Menezes is responsible for the foundation of the very first loudspeaker orchestra in Brazil: the PUTS. He is currently Professor of Electroacoustic Music and Composition and Director of Studio PANaroma at the State University of São Paulo (Unesp).
Download an English Curriculum Vitae as PDF-file (132 KB) 
