Biographies

Conductor, arranger and composer Júlio Medaglia was born in 1938 in the city of São Paulo. In Brazil, he studied choral and symphonic conducting with Hans Joachin Koellreutter, and, in Germany, symphonic conducting and contemporary music with composers Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

In the early 60’s, Medaglia was part of Música Nova, a movement organized by an avant-garde group of classical musicians based in São Paulo. In 1967, he joined Tropicalism by making arrangements for a few of the songs in the album Caetano Veloso, among which “Tropicália”, one of the most representative of the movement.

Since then, Medaglia has made his name as one of the most versatile artists in Brazilian music, working in a diversity of fronts as author and producer of original music for film, stage plays and television series, both in Brazil and abroad.

Júlio Medaglia also organizes festivals and conducts both European and Brazilian orchestras, such as the Symphonic Orchestras of São Paulo’s Municipal Theatre and Brasília’s National Theatre, as well as the Amazonas Philharmonic from Manaus, which he founded. He also hosts the radio programs Tema e Variações and Contraponto on Rádio Cultura FM, associated to Padre Anchieta Foundation. Also known as a controversial guest writer for newspapers, the conductor has gathered a series of texts about his musical path in a book called Música Impopular.