PONTEIO PUBLISHING -- Who are we?

Max Barros, President was born in California and raised in Brasil. In his activities a pianist, teacher and publisher, he has steadily promoted Brazilian music in the US, having premiered several works by Brazilian composers including Miranda’s Concertino for piano and strings with the West Virginia Symphony. Considered an ambassador for Brazilian music in the United States, his work with performers, conductors, presenters, managers and record companies has led to several recordings as well as commissions and premieres of new works. He has recently done the world premiere recording of Amaral Vieira’s piano quintet "Fronteiras" with the Ensemble Capriccio from Minneapolis, to be released by Paulus in the fall of 2001. Other recent performances include Mozart’s piano concerto k. 414 with the Saint Luke’s Orchestra, and a demonstration concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York with violinist Stephanie Chase, highlighting three early pianos from their collection. He has also recorded the complete trios by Boccherini and Storace on period instruments, and a selection of fantasies by Schumann, Chopin and Brahms. Mr. Barros is a Steinway artist and his recordings can be found on the Paulus, Musikus and Hungaroton labels.

James Melo, Vice President is a musicologist whose contributions to the field have covered a wide range of subjects, including music iconography, theory, and aesthetics. He holds an M.A. from New York University, where is currently completing a doctoral dissertation on the atonal songs of Anton Webern. Mr. Melo has also written several essays, program notes, and articles on Brazilian music and its development from the 18^th to the late 20^th century. He has participated in conferences in the United States and Canada, and has conducted workshops in history and analysis in Brazil and the U.S. In 1991-92, he received a grant from the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, where he studied the manuscripts of Webern in preparation for his dissertation. He has taught music theory at New York University, and among his publications are articles in music journals in Brazil and the United States; program annotations for concerts in the United States and Brazil; program notes for over 50 CDs documenting the evolution of Brazilian music on the Brazilian label Paulus; and book reviews for the journal Music in Art. He contributes a monthly column for the music magazine Sinfónica in Uruguay, and is currently writing the CD notes for Naxos’s recording of the complete piano music of Villa-Lobos.