Rodrigo Affonso

Biography

Rodrigo Affonso, born in Rio de Janeiro, is a professor of choral conducting at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar (Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT Weimar), Germany.
He is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Music at the University of Aveiro. He holds a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main and a Master’s degree in Performance Practices from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) — an institution where he also obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education.

He has served as a judge in various international choir competitions, such as in 2013 in Daejeon, South Korea, and in 2018 as the head judge at the international choir competition in Miltenberg, Germany.
In 2019, he received the award for Best Conductor at the choir competition in Bernbach, Germany. With his women’s choir, ElektraVokal, he won the 1st Prize in the contemporary music category at the Büdingen Choir Competition in Germany, as well as 1st Prizes in the female choir and contemporary music categories at the Bernbach Choir Competition. At the 2019 International Choir Festival in Aveiro, Portugal, the group won the 3rd Prize in the Grand Prix.

He regularly conducts professional and amateur choirs and orchestras and held the position of Principal Conductor for the District Choir Association (Kreischorleiter) in Dieburg, Germany.
As a guest conductor, he has worked with groups such as the South Korean Daejeon Philharmonic Choir, the French choir Arsys Bourgogne, and the renowned German choir Gächinger Kantorei.
Rodrigo has also worked as a professor of Harmony and Musical Analysis at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and taught Musical Perception and Choral Singing at the Baptist College of Music in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Since 2005, he has offered conducting courses and workshops in France, South Korea, Germany, Brazil, Spain, and Portugal. In addition to his activities as a conductor, he also performs as a guitarist.”

Title Strategy of a “Polyphonic Rehearsal”: Case study with the female choir ElektraVokal on Johannes Brahms’ choral work

Advisor Vasco Negreiros

Abstract The research project presented here belongs to the study of the choral rehearsal.

The main question that drives my research is how to rehearse so as to generate interpretations capable of articulating and integrating multiple layers of musical events that are commonly taken as excluding. Building upon my practice as a musical director, I will observe, experiment and propose strategies for the interpretation of aspects present in the work of Johannes Brahms for female choir such as: rhythmic-harmonic ambiguities, text-music relation and the appropriation of ancient music. The group that will act as a laboratory for this research will be the German choir, based in Frankfurt am Main, ElektraVokal.