José Maria Florêncio

Originally from Fortaleza (Brazil), Maestro Florêncio is an outstanding conductor, violist, and composer who has been living in our country since 1985 and has been associated with the most important Polish orchestras for over 20 years. He was the director of the Grand Theatre in Łódź, Music Director of the State Opera in Wrocław, Chief and Artistic Director of the PRiTV Orchestra and Choir in Krakow, as well as Permanent Conductor of the Grand Theatre of the National Opera in Warsaw. He also served as Music Director of the Stanisław Moniuszko Grand Theatre in Poznań and Chief and Artistic Director of the Poznań Philharmonic. He has conducted numerous outstanding orchestras from around the world, including the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, the National Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio in Katowice, the Israel Symphony Orchestra, Braunschweig Orchester, Beethoven Halle Orchester, Berliner Kammerorchester, Orquestra Classica do Porto, Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de São Paulo, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra. He has also collaborated with world-renowned singers such as Paata Burchuladze, Jose Cura, Andrzej Dobber, Gegam Grigorian, Olga Pasiecznik, Ewa Podleś, and Małgorzata Walewska, as well as instrumentalists including Jewgenij Buschkov, Nelson Goerner, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, António Meneses, Ivan Monighetti, Garrick Ohlsson, Julian Rachlin, Dimitry Sitkovesky, and Dang Thai Son. He is currently the conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Municipal Theatre in São Paulo, one of the oldest musical institutions in Latin America.
He began his musical studies in Brazil at the Minas Gerais University in Belo Horizonte. He also studied at the Julliard School in New York, the Musikhochschule in Vienna, and at the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw, where he received a diploma with honors in Composition, Conducting, and Music Theory under the guidance of Prof. Henryk Czyż.
He has received numerous awards and distinctions, including being a two-time winner of the Silver Łódka award for the best theatrical performances of the year: Giuseppe Verdi's 'Ernani' (1992) and Pietro Mascagni's 'Cavalleria Rusticana' (1993). In 1992, he was named the best conductor of the season by music critics from São Paulo, and 5 years later, he received the Sereira de Ouro award from the Brazilian TV Globo for promoting and celebrating his region. Maestro's latest album featuring French music was hailed as the album of the year and awarded five diapasons - the highest phonographic rating in France. His artistic successes include world premieres of contemporary works such as Mikis Theodorakis' 'Electra,' Marta Ptaszyńska's 'Holocaust Memorial Cantata,' and other pieces written for the artist by prominent composers from Brazil, Poland, France, and Israel.
He was the first conductor from Brazil or Poland to be invited to conduct masterclasses and lead a special concert of Polish-Brazilian music at the Moscow Conservatory.