Gilberto Mendes was born in
Santos,
Brazil, in 1922. He studied piano with
Antonieta Rudge and harmony with Sabino de Benedictis. The influence of
Villa-Lobos is evident in his early works, in some way preceding the advent of
bossa nova in his early songs. His contact with the poets of the Noigandres group gave him the ideological inspiration to feed his talent. Mendes's compositions include
cantatas,
motets, orchestral music,
incidental music, solo and chamber pieces, and some
avant-garde works. Most of them are published by Alain Van Kerckhoven Editeur. In 1965, he founded the Santos New Music Festival. In the 1970s and 1980s, he taught at the
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and the
University of Texas, then was a professor of music at the
University of São Paulo (USP). ==Discography==