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Hugo Pilger, Violoncelo
[email protected]
Hugo Pilger learned to appreciate orchestral music through a
radio program that his father listened to every Sunday
morning. This was a new discovery within a family
environment in which music already played an important role:
his maternal grandfather was an amateur violinist who
influenced his mother and aunts to become singers in
ballrooms in Rio Grande do Sul. Hugo began his musical
journey as a singer with the Coral Corujinhas of the Escola
Pereira Coruja in Taquari, Rio Grande do Sul, and later formed
a singing duo with his brother Rui, the two of them singing at
small shops and grocery stores in exchange for soft drinks and
marbles.
Today, his musical maturity is recognized by musicians such
as David Ashbridge, Maurício Carrilho, and Wagner Tiso, who
dedicated works to him: Sonata no. 2 para Violoncelo Solo, Serenata pro Pilger, and Reflexões
sobre a Ostra e o Vento, respectively. Hugo became a cellist after having spent a few years of
his adolescence as a guitarist performing at soirées in the hinterlands of his native state of Rio
Grande do Sul. His first teacher on the new instrument was Milton Bock, from the Fundação de
Artes de Montenegro, who awakened in him a passion for the classical repertoire for the cello.
In Rio de Janeiro, he studied with the cellist Marcio Malard and graduated from Federal
University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) in the class of Alceu Reis. These two
teachers were instrumental for his musical development.
Currently, Hugo Pilger is principal cellist with the Orquestra Petrobras Sinfônica and teaches
cello at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO). He has participated of
master classes with Marcio Carneiro, Antonio Del Claro, Arturo Bonucci, Antonio Meneses, and
Bernard Greenhouse. He has performed as soloist with the Orquestra Petrobras Sinfônica, the
Orquestra do Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, the Orquestras Sinfônicas de Campinas e
Porto Alegre, the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, the Orquestra Filarmônica do Espírito Santo,
the Orquestra de Câmara de Curitiba, Orquestra de Câmara do Theatro São Pedro in Porto
Alegre, the Orquestra do Teatro da Paz, and the Orquestra de Ouro Preto.
As an orchestra and chamber musician, he has performed in several countries in the Americas
and in Europe, in addition to making recordings for film and TV soundtracks. He has performed
with some of the most renowned popular musicians of Brazil, including Chico Buarque, Milton
Nascimento, Edu Lobo, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Maria Bethânia, Gal Costa, Marisa
Monte, and Roberto Carlos, among others.
The French composer Henri Dutilleux praised Hugo’s interpretation of Tout un Monde Lointain,
a works for cello and orchestra that Hugo premiered in Brazil in 2006. He also gave the South
American premiere of Arvo Pärt’s Pro et Contra in 2009, the same year that he joined the
Quarteto Radamés Gnattali. In addition to his concerns for technical precision, Hugo’s
interpretations display a careful balance between the techniques that he learned from several
teachers and his individual and highly personal way of relating to music and to his instrument.