Joao Guilherme Ripper

Joao Guilherme Ripper (born 1959 in Rio de Janeiro) is a composer, conductor, cultural manager and professor at the Music School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He obtained his doctorate in composition at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he studied with Helmut Braunlich and Emma Garmendia. He also attended the course “Perfeccionament en Direccon Orchestal" in Argentina, with Maestro Guillermo Scarabino, and "Economie et financement de la Culture", at the Universite Paris-Dauphine.

Ripper has guest-conducted important Brazilian orchestras as the National Theater Symphony Orchestra (Brasília), Cuyo Symphony Orchestra (Mendoza-Argentina), National Symphony Orchestra (Rio de Janeiro), Sinfonia Cultura Orchestra (Sao Paulo), and Symphony Orchestra of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Rio). From 2001 to 2005, he was Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Pantanal Chamber Orchestra, in Mato Grosso do Sul, a leading orchestra in the region featuring a varied repertoire that ranges from the classics into popular and new Brazilian music.

He was Director of the School of Music of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro between 1999 and 2003. In 2004 he accepted the invitation of the Government of the state of Rio de Janeiro to manage the Sala Cecília Meireles, a leading concert hall in Rio de Janeiro, where he remained for 11 years. In 2015, he was appointed President of the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro, a position he held until the beginning of 2017, when he returned to teaching at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Ripper is a member and Vice-President of the Brazilian Academy of Music and collaborates often with orchestras, chamber ensembles, theaters and festivals in Brazil and abroad, creating new works or acting as a composer resident. Some of his recent work includes the series "From My Window", participation in the Artist Program from Kean University (US), "Desenredo" and "Five Poems of Vinicius de Moraes”, commissioned by the Symphony Orchestra of the state of Sao Paulo, "Jogos Sinfonicos (Symphonic Games)”, for the Philharmonic Orchestra of Minas Gerais, "Nativity - Scenic Cantata", for the Amazonas Theater, and Concertato "Gloria", which closed the first International Congress of Sacred Music in Rio de Janeiro. His five operas have been performed in world renowned theaters. “Onheama”, an opera for young audiences, was produced at the Teatro Amazonas in 2014 and 2015, and in Portugal the following year. “Piedade” was produced in Rio in 2012 and was part of the 2017 artistic season of the Teatro Colon, in Argentina.