Universidade Estadual de Maringa

Faculty Member, Departamento de Musica

Professor of Music Composition and Theory

About

Marcus Bittencourt is a Brazilian composer and pianist. He studied music with composers such as Willy Corrêa de Oliveira and Tristan Murail, and his music is of an experimental character marked by a varied pallete of musical sound materials and techniques, which reflects his interest and investigation in the domains of form, polyrhythm and simultaneities, timbre, sound spatial perspective, microtonality, and orchestration of sound objects. As a composer, he is prolific both as an instrumental and an electroacoustic composer and his music has been played throughout the United States, Europe, and Brazil. His list of compositions includes works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, choir, solo instruments (specially the piano), operas, as well as several electroacoustic works. He has been performing widely as a pianist, conductor, and sound-projectionist, often taking those tasks simultaneously, as in the case of his piano concerti with live electronics. Among the awards he has received are the first prize at the Projeto Nascente V (1996), a seven year scholarship at Columbia University, and a residency at the Centro Studi Ligure of the Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa, Italy. His academic credentials include a Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance from the  Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, and Master's and Doctoral degrees in Music Composition from  Columbia University in the City of New York. He has taught Music at Columbia University, at Lehman College of CUNY, and the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He currently teaches Composition, Theory, and Computer Music at the  Universidade Estadual de Maringá (State University of Paraná at Maringá) in Brazil, where he also directs the Laboratório de Pesquisa e Produção Sonora -  LAPPSO (Laboratory for Research and Audio Production).