Rodrigo Bussad (Sao Paulo, Brazil. b.1985) awarded with the 3rd place at the 2019 American Prize in Composition in the Professional Chamber Music Division with the work Nimbi and the winner of in the same competition (Student's division) in its 2014's edition with the work Loin. In 2018 and 2019, he was one of the finalists in the Professional Chamber Music Division in the same competition. Mr. Bussad is the winning composer of the 2017 Ukho Ensemble Workshop and the 2015 Valencia International Performance Academy (VIPA). His music has been performed across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, where he worked with renowned orchestras and ensembles, highlighting; the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (France), Civic Orchestra of Chicago (Chicago), The Grossman Ensemble (Chicago), Spektral Quartet (Chicago), Third Coast Percussion (Chicago), Imani Winds (New York), Ukho Ensemble (Ukraine), NanaFormosa Percussion Duo (Taiwan), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (Hong Kong), Brower Trio:B3 (Spain), Ensemble motoContraio (Italy), cross.art Ensemble (Germany), Ensemble Paramirabo (Canada), and ABSTRAI Ensemble (Brazil). Bussad has recently co- produced the NanaFormosa Percussion Duo’s most recent album, having his piece for marimba duo, Moon Inside (II) as the title track, this album will be distributed by UNIVERSAL in the Fall of 2019. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in Composition at The University of Chicago.
Rodrigo Bussad's O Cais received its world premiere performance by the Grossman Ensemble on March 15, 2019.
O Cais Program Notes
A pier at a placid haven…is an otherworldly image full of symbolism, a portal that connects earth and water, this world with the next. A symbolism exercised in the poetry of Blake, Neruda, Coleridge, and Quintana. It is a place of arrival, and of departure where contours become tarnished and often disappear. In O Cais, the sounds ringing also become tarnished, creating a sonic “memory game” of perception. Sounds from my home country are added to the soundscape, like the sound of the berimbau; a signifier of coastal regions and sea shanties.