Music of the Americas Presents:
JOÃO, O MAESTRO
A film by Mauro Lima
(Brazil, 2017, 117 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Born in 1940, Martins was a child with serious health problems. Because of this, he had a reclusive childhood. But one day, the piano came into his life and in a few years he turned into one of the biggest promises of the world classical music. The New York Times considered him "one of the most important pianists in the world." After making his Carnegie Hall debut sponsored by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1962, Martins appeared with major orchestras, played Bach recitals worldwide, and made recordings. The Boston Globe characterized him as "The most exciting player of Bach on the modern piano to emerge since Glenn Gould."
Unfortunately, Martins lost his ability to play because of a series of tragic accidents, neurological episodes, focal dystonia for musicians, and a brutal mugging, and he has endured 25 surgeries. Since the early 2000s, he has focused on conducting, founding the Bachiana Chamber Orchestra and the Bachiana Youth Orchestra, which started with about 45 teenagers, some of whom were from the poorest neighborhoods around São Paulo. Today his 90-member Orquestra Bachiana Filarmônica SESI-SP performs over 2,000 concerts worldwide and in Brazil and this project involves 750 associated community Brazilian orchestras.
Friday, November 18, 7pm*
Americas Society
680 Park Avenue, New York City
Free admission with rsvp: https://www.as-coa.org/events/film-screening-joao-o-maestro
Screening followed by a Q&A with director Mauro Lima and pianist João Carlos Martins.
Martins is back in New York to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of his Carnegie debut. On Saturday, November 19, he will lead NOVUS NY at Carnegie Hall in a program focusing on the music of Bach, the pioneering 20th century Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos, and André Mehmari, one of the most sought-after composers in Brazil.
Watch the trailer:
