Catarina Domenici
Brazilian pianist Catarina Domenici has an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, composer, teacher and researcher. She holds a MM and a DMA degree from the Eastman School of Music, where she was an assistant to Rebecca Penneys and was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate and the Lizie Teege Mason Prize. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the University at Buffalo where she researched composerperformer interactions in contemporary music. Domenici was the recipient of two scholarships from CNPq (Brazil) and three scholarships from the Chautauqua Institution (US). A champion of Brazilian contemporary music, Domenici has commissioned, premiered and recorded several works for piano solo and chamber ensembles. Her solo CD Porto 60 features eight newly commissioned works for piano, of which Brazilian music critic Juarez Foncesa wrote: “Before Catarina, we did not know that there were many composers forming a young generation with such solid attributes in Brazilian contemporary music. Her CD Porto 60 is more than a record: it is a reference." Porto 60 has received two Açorianos Prize for Best CD of Classical Music and Best Instrumentalist.
Domenici has also collaborated with composers James Corrêa and Eduardo Miranda in the CD Plural, Italian composer Paolo Cavallone CD Confini (Tactus, 2011), Flavio Oliveira in Tudo Muda (Açorianos Prize for Best Classical CD in 2002), and Luciano Zanatta in Volume 2 (Açorianos Prize nomination for Best Instrumentatlist). Her extensive experience as a chamber musician includes the recording of the CDs Brazil! New Music, vol. 1 (Best Experimental Music recording prize awarded by the São Paulo Art Critics Association) with Ensemble Novo Horizonte and II Prêmio Eldorado de Música and Compositores da Bahia with the São Paulo State University Percussion Ensemble, with whom she toured Brazil and the US. A founding member of Duo Uno, Domenici represented the Eastman School of Music in a series of concerts in Central America performing works for piano and percussion by North American and Brazilian composers. Other collaborations include the CD Kinematic with Musitrio, which received the Açorianos Prize for Best Chamber Music Group in 2002. As a member of Quinteto Scarlatti, she was awarded the First Prize and the Special Prize for the performance of a Brazilian work at the National Chamber Music Competition in São Paulo. She also received the Best Chamber Musician Prize at the VII Prêmio Eldorado de Música, which culminated in a CD of 20th century works for violin and piano released on the Eldorado label. In the US, she was a member of the Slee Sinfonietta at the Center for 21st Century Music at the University at Buffalo. Other collaborations with contemporary composers and performers include Jacek Muzyk: Horn Constellation (Summit Records, 2011), A música para piano de Camargo Guarnieri: 8 Sonatinas e Sonata (PPGMUS, 2012, nominated for Açorianos Prize for Best Instrumentalist), Baqte Ensemble (PROAC, 2012, nominated for Bravo Prize for Best Classical Music CD), Canção do Porto (FUMPROARTE, 2012), Cameratas & Consorts (PPGMUS, 2013), Leonardo Winter: Música para Flauta de Compositores Gaúchos (PPGMUS, 2017), for which she received the Açorianos Prize for Best Instrumentalist in classical music in 2018.
As a composer, Domenici has collaborated with dance in Não me toque estou cheia de lágrimas: sensacões de Clarice Lispector e Cem metros de valsa e um grama, which received the Klauss Viana Dance Prize and an Açorianos Prize nomination for Best Soundtrack. She is one of the composers featured in the Donne Women in Music project. Two of her songs are featured in the CD Hommage: Women composers from Brazil and Italy, which has received glowing reviews and four Açorianos Prize nominations. Her works have been performed in the UK, Italy, US, and Brazil.
Domenici has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras in Brazil, and has recorded live broadcasts for public radio and television in Brazil and the US. She is a recurring presence at contemporary music festivals, and is frequently invited to give master classes, lecture-recitals and presentations. In the US, she performed at the Chautauqua Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Orpheus Concert Series, Heidelberg New Music Festival, among others, and served as faculty at the University at Buffalo, the Chautauqua Music Festival, the Eastman Community Music School, Nazareth College, and Finger Lakes Community College. She holds a professorship at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul at Porto Alegre, where she teaches at the graduate and undergraduate levels. As a researcher, she is actively involved in artistic research, having published several articles in international and national periodicals, and presented papers at national and international music congresses and symposiums, such as PERFORMA (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017), The Performer’s Voice in Singapore (2009, 2012), European Platform for Artistic Research in Music in Rome (2012), The CMPCP Conference in Cambridge, UK (2013, 2014). Domenici is a founding member and was served as the first president of the Brazilian Association for Music Performance (ABRAPEM) for two consecutive mandates.
