Cleofe Person de Mattos

Origin

Rio de Janeiro, RJ

Years Active

1930–2002

Genres

classical music, choral singing, colonial music

Instruments

conducting

Biography

Cleofe Person de Mattos was born in the city of Rio de Janeiro on December 17, 1913, standing out as an important professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a pioneering musicologist. Graduating from the same university in conducting and composition, she directed her path toward the development and dissemination of classical choral singing in the country, leaving a lasting legacy in Brazilian musical history.

Throughout her career, she led the Choral Singing Association, an institution she helped create and where she promoted the performance of works by renowned national composers. Through her coordination, the choir interpreted creations by great names such as Heitor Villa-Lobos and Francisco Mignone, in addition to bringing prominent international figures for premiere auditions in Brazil, influencing generations of musicians.

In addition to her work as a conductor and educator, she dedicated herself intensely to musicology and the editing of scores and books, focusing especially on the recovery of music from the Brazilian colonial period. Her effort concentrated on detailed research into the life and work of priest José Maurício Nunes Garcia, consolidating herself as a fundamental figure for the preservation and study of the country's musical memory until her passing in 2002.

Discography

• José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita / Inácio Parreira Neves / Marcos Coelho Netto / Francisco Gomes da Rocha – Associação de Canto Coral do Rio de Janeiro , Dir. de Cleofe Person de Mattos ; Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira , Regente: Edoardo de Guarnieri – Antifona de Nossa Senhora / Credo / Maria Mater Gratiae / Novena de Nossa Senhora do Pilar (1958)
• Villa-Lobos, Associação de Canto Coral do Rio de Janeiro Direcao de Cleofe Person de Mattos – Missa São Sebastião (1968)
• Associação de Canto Coral, Cleofe Person de Mattos - José Maurício Nunes Garcia – Matinas de Finados (1980)
• Heitor Villa-Lobos, Cléofe Person de Mattos – Missa São Sebastião para Três Vozes "A Cappella" (1981)