LUIZ FERNANDO MALHEIRO, Conductor

Luiz Fernando Malheiro website: click here

“Inspired conducting which comes from the orchestra pit and lights up the stage...”

- O Estado de São Paulo newspaper, May 2005

Acknowledged by music critics as one of the leading names in Brazilian opera, Malheiro has more than 50 operatic works in his repertoire. He is Artistic Director and Conductor of the Amazon Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Amazon Opera Festival (FAO). He was also director of opera at the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro.

Winner of the Carlos Gomes Award: Opera Conductor (2009), Universe of Opera/2000, he conducted the first Brazilian production of the Niebelungen Ring at the FAO/2005 for which he received two additional awards: Universe of Opera and Performance of the Year. In 2004, 2005 and 2007, he conducted the Opera Festival of La Coruña in Spain. In Brazil he conducted the Municipal Symphonic Orchestra of São Paulo, the Symphonic Orchestra of the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian Symphonic Orchestra, OSESP (São Paulo State Symphonic Orchestra), the Symphonic Orchestra of Minas Gerais and the Symphonic Orchestra of Bahia, among others. He also conducted at the Theater Del Libertador of Cordoba, Argentina, the Symphonic Orchestra of Puerto Rico, the Orchestra of the Olympic Theater of Vicenza and the Marchigiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the National Opera of Sofia in Bulgaria, the Symphonic Orchestra of Galicia and the Symphonic Orchestra of Castille and Leon in Spain.


Malheiro studied composition with J. Targoszin in Poland and with R. Dionisi in Italy. He studied conducting with T. Colacioppo in Brazil and K. Missona in Poland. He also studied with Leonard Bernstein in Rome, with F. Leitner in Sienna and Carlo Maria Giulini in Milan.