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Paolo Nardi (3)

Brazilian Italian Oboist. Paolo Nardi was born in Bologna, Italy in 1940 where I spent the first ten years of his life immersed in the artistic ambience of the city with its countless masterpieces of art. His father, Antonio Maria Nardi, was a prolific painter then in his prime. In 1948 my father was called to Rio de Janeiro to fresco some churches. Two years later, having realized just how much work was to be done in the city, our whole family relocated to Rio. Paolo found myself at the age of 10 in a foreign country, with a new language to learn and a whole world of new sounds and curiosities. Showing obvious musical talent, he began studying the clarinet in 1956 at Niteroi and the Rio Conservatory of Music with Maestro Jayoleno dos Santos, principal clarinettist of the Orchestra Sinfonica Brasiliera. He received his diploma with full marks in 1963 and appeared as solo clarinettist with Orchestra Sinfonica Brasiliera. In 1960 he began my oboe studies with Maestro Nelson N. Hack, orchestral oboist with the Orchestra of the Teatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro who had been a student of Leandro Serafin of the Teatro della Scala in Milan. In 1964, with full marks he passed my oboe diploma at the Conservatory of Music “Lorenzo Fernandez” in Rio. From 1961-1965 he experienced many exciting solo and collaborative projects with various chamber groups in Brazil. In 1961 he founded a wind quintet with the flutist Celso Woltzenlogel, clarinettist Wilfried Berk, horn player Carlos G. de Oliveira and bassoonist Ayrton Barbosa. This quintet was soon named Quinteto Villa-Lobos which was suggested by the widow of the composer, Mrs Arminda Villa-Lobos, who was the director of the Villa-Lobos Museum at the time. Many Brazilian composers from this time wrote music for them: José Siqueira, Oswalda Lacerda, Brenno Blauth, Raphael Baptista. Quinteto Villa-Lobos premiered many pieces by these composers as part of the Movimento Musical Renovador. They became popular and participated in many private and State sponsored tours. In 1963 he was appointed principal oboist of the Teatro Municipale Rio de Janeiro and even performed oboe concerti with the National Radio Orchestra, broadcast live on the radio whilst still appearing with the quintet. In 1965, the Villa-Lobos Quintet began performing at a Copacabana Night Club called “ZUM-ZUM”. Here they played music by Hindemith, Bozza, Ibert and R. Baptista as part of a one hour show that we shared with singer and composer Edu Lobo and well-known singer Nara Leao. They were accompanied by “Trio Tamba” (piano, string bass and percussion). Beginning after midnight, when the guests had already had their meal and drinks, the lights would go out and the first notes of the French Horn would emerge playing Bozza’s “Variazioni su un tema libero”. This would be followed by the singers performing songs from the “bossa nova” years. We would then perform the Hindemith quintet and Trio Tamba would play popular songs and music. Thw mix of classical and bossa nova was extremely popular. In the early 1970s he moved to Italy. He was principal oboist with the Orchestra Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence from 1972 thru 1996.