Walter Burle Marx

Walter Burle Marx (July 23, 1902, in São Paulo, Brazil – December 28, 1990, in Akron, USA) was a Brazilian pianist, conductor and composer.

Biography Born in São Paulo, he moved to Rio de Janeiro with his family in 1914, where he studied piano with Henrique Oswald. Praised as an outstanding conductor, he settled in the US in 1950, where he developed his career as a composer. Among his main works are his Cello Concerto and four symphonies.

Brother of the famous landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, Walter took the first piano lessons with his mother at age 4 and, in 1913, he became a student of Luigi Chiaffarelli in São Paulo. Walter played his first recital at the age of 10. In 1914, he moved to Rio de Janeiro with his family to study with Henrique Oswald, who introduced him to his professional career.

Parallel to piano classes, Walter studied solfeggio and harmony with Agnello França between 1919 and 1921.

In 1930, back to Brazil, Burle Marx debuted as a conductor at Teatro Lírico, with the Orchestra of the Musical Center of Rio de Janeiro. The following year, he founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of Rio de Janeiro, promoting many concerts and premieres of symphonic works in Brazil, among them Beethoven's 9th Symphony. He also conducted the Philharmonic of the Municipal Theater at the inauguration of the statue of Christ the Redeemer, in Rio de Janeiro.

Walter decided spend some time in Europe and, in 1933, he made various recordings with Telefunken with the State Orchestra of Berlin, including his own Fantasy on the National Brazilian Anthem, which he authored. In 1934, he conducted the Hamburg, Munich, and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras as well as radio and opera orchestras there, playing Brazilian and other South American works.

Walter's music is managed by Thiago Tiberio via Tiberio Music Design & Publishing LLC, who publishes, licenses, and administers his compositions and copyrights. Urtext-quality performing editions of some works, e.g. Fantasia Sobre o Thema do Hymno Nacional, are already available, with more works forthcoming—including the two string quartets, the Divertimento a tre, and the Quintet for Flute and Strings "Brazil Picturesque".