Ricardo Coelho de Souza

From Wind Repertory Project
Ricardo Coelho de Souza

Biography

Ricardo A. Coelho de Souza (b. 1974, Belém, Brazil) is a Brazilian composer, educator and percussionist.

Souza moved to the United States in 1993. He holds a performer's certificate from the Carlos Gomes Conservatory, bachelor and master degrees from the University of Missouri, and a DMA from the University of Oklahoma. Souza was a recipient of the BMI Student Composer Award in 1999, and at the University of Oklahoma he received the Ronald J. Dyer Award in percussion, the Michael Hennagin Memorial Scholarship in composition, the Sutton Award in chamber music, and the Gail Boyd de Stwolinski Award for meritorious scholarship and musical performance achievements.

Souza has worked with a variety of musicians such as the legendary guitarist Sebastião Tapajós, Broadway musician and gyil player Valerie Naranjo, Indian mridangam artist Poovalur Sriji, Brazilian pianist João Marcos Mascarenhas, American songwriter Beau Mansfield, Australian didgeridoo master Ash Dargan, and Colombian singer-pianist José Luis Tono. Souza has been featured at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the Texas Christian University Latin American Arts Festival, the Tulsa Camerata Concert Series, the Toronto Electro-Acoustic Symposium, the Society of Composers National Conference, the NYC Electro-acoustic Music Festival and the International Music Festival of Pará in Brazil. He has also premiered more than 50 works for percussion and has worked closely with several composers including American composers Bernadette Speach, George Crumb, Christian Asplund, Kenneth Fuchs, and Cort Lippe, Puerto Rican composer William Ortiz, Greek composer Kostas Karathanasis, and Chilean composer Miguel Chuaqui.

Currently [2022], he is a visiting instructor in percussion and world music at the University of Oklahoma and is actively engaged in performing, composing, arranging, and conducting.


Works for Winds


Resources