Gilberto Mendes

Brazilian composer Gilberto Mendes was born in Santos on 13 October 1922, and studied piano and harmony at the Conservatorio de Santos. He was practically self-taught as a composer, but received advice from Cláudio Santoro, George Olivier Toni, Pierre Boulez, Henri Pousseur and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

He was one of the pioneers of experimental music, making use of randomness, musique concrète, electronics, phonemes, extended vocal technique, theatre and mixed media.

He founded the Festival Musica Nova de Santos in 1962. During the 1970s and 80s he taught at two US universities - Wisconsin-Madison and Texas, and then became professor of music in São Paulo.

Gilberto Mendes died in Santos on 1 January 2016, aged ninety-three.