Eleazar de Carvalho

Eleazar de Carvalho

Eleazar de Carvalho (28 June 1912, Iguatu, Ceará – 12 September 1996, São Paulo) was a Brazilian conductor and composer.

Biography

De Carvalho's parents were Manuel Alfonso de Carvalho and Dalila Mendonça. He studied in the United States with Sergei Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Music Center, and later became a conducting assistant to Koussevitzky, at the same time as Leonard Bernstein. He received a Ph.D. in music from Washington State University in 1963.

In Brazil, de Carvalho held principal conducting positions with the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira of Rio de Janeiro, and also with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. In the United States, his major post was as music director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), from 1963 to 1968. During his Saint Louis tenure, he was noted as a champion of contemporary music. He also conducted the first SLSO performances of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa solemnis, and the Grande messe des morts of Hector Berlioz.

De Carvalho taught at Hofstra University and the Juilliard School of Music. In 1987, he joined the music faculty of Yale University as a professor and as conductor-in-residence. He became emeritus at Yale in 1994. De Carvalho was a teacher to such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Gustav Meier, Seiji Ozawa, Jose Serebrier, and David Zinman.

De Carvalho was married to Sonia Muniz de Carvalho. They had a daughter, Claudia, and a son, Serge.