Antonio Massa Viana • Guitarist

About

Born in Bahia, Brazil, Antonio Massa Viana relocated to the United States in 1996 to study Classical Guitar Performance and Music Composition.

He attended the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College in New York, where he was a member of the baroque ensemble Ars Latium and the B.C. Guitar Ensemble. He was also a demanded performer for weddings, conventions and private functions. Among other venues, he was a frequent guest for the NY Psychiatric Medical Association and for events at the Brazilian Consulate in New York and also a regular guest musician at St. Theresa’s church in Woodside and St. Paul’s Catholic Church, in East Harlem. He was also featured at the Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church Concert Series.

For several years, Antonio taught at the Mozart Music Studio, in Woodside, and at the Music Academy, in Mamaroneck, NY, amongst others, and was the music curriculum teacher for St. Kevin’s Catholic School, where he educated students from Pre-K to 8th grade. He was also an assisting instrumentalist for the New York Foundation for the Arts music program at P.S. 48 and manager for New York Youth Symphony’s Making Score program.

He is the author of 'Macumba', a piece premièred by The Brooklyn College Percussion Ensemble, for which he received the 2001 Award from the Institute for Studies in American Music. On that same year, the NY Youth Symphony String Quartet included his composition ‘Two Sketches for String Quartet on Paintings of Edward Munch’ in an Evening of New Music. He is currently composing music for children.

His classical guitar teachers include Lars Frandsen and Alvimar Rocha. He studied composition and orchestration with Derek Bermel and Douglas Cohen.

While in college, he also met his wife, Argentinean soprano Lelia Tenreyro-Viana. Together they have performed a variety of repertoires from Bossa Nova to European 19th-Century music and Contemporary Music for voice and guitar.

Antonio Viana is also a writer with several published works, including two poetry books in his native Brazil. You can read more about it in here.

Antonio is a proud father of three and has been a Massachusetts resident since 2002.

artist