Yara Bernette

Bernette Epstein, known as Yara Bernette (March 14, 1920 – March 31, 2002), She attended the Ginásio Oswaldo Cruz, graduating in 1937.

She began studying piano at the age of six under her uncle, José Kliass, a leading piano teacher in Brazil who was the student of German concert pianist Martin Krause. Kliass continued as her sole instructor for 20 years. Bernette performed for the first time at age eleven in a children's concert at São Paulo's Theatro Municipal,

Music career She made her professional musical debut in 1938 with the São Paulo Municipal Symphony Orchestra.

Her first American concert tour also saw her perform in Canada, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Columbia, and Argentina. She dubbed the piano playing of actress Tônia Carrero in the 1952 Brazilian film Appassionata.

Though American-born, Bernette relinquished her U.S. citizenship in order to perform internationally under the Brazilian flag. In 1955 she made her European debut, performing in Paris with the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire conducted by Heitor Villa-Lobos; she also played in Vienna, Amsterdam and London.

Bernette was considered one of Brazil's foremost pianists of the twentieth century.

Repertoire and recordings In 1970 she recorded her first disc comprising two sets of Preludes by Rachmaninoff, op. 23 and op. 32, for Deutsche Grammophon, the latter "considered one of the most difficult works for piano".

In 1995, at age 75, she recorded a solo album featuring 19 short pieces that could be used as encores in recitals, among them works by Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, Domenico Paradies, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, and Heitor Villa-Lobos.