Anderson Pessoa

Anderson Pessoa was born in Brasília in 1974 and started his musical studies at Escola de música de Brasília(EMB) in 1986. There he had classes and lessons with important musicians from the city. In 2002, Mr. Pessoa began his bachelors degree in classical saxophone at the Universidade de Brasília, initially in the studio of Luiz Gonzaga Carneiro and later with Vadim Arsky, graduating in 2009.

During his classical studies, Mr. Pessoa never lost the contact with the jazz, the brazilian popular music and the art of improvisation, performing and recording with numerous artists living in the region like Renato Vasconcellos, André Vasconcelos, Genil Castro, Hamilton Pinheiro, Alberto Sales to mention a few. He also performed with important Brazilian musicians such as Carlos Malta, Adriano Giffoni, Leandro Braga, Tony Botelho, Paulo Braga, Victor Santos and Milton Nascimento. Anderson organized, recorded and toured with his saxofone quartet “Babando o Bambu”. The album entitled “Esfera” featured seven of his original compositions.

In 1999 Mr. Pessoa was awarded a teaching position at the Escola de Musica de Brasília where he, along with other professors, helped create the popular saxofone program for the school. Mr. Pessoa taught classical and jazz saxophone at EMB until 2006.

Mr. Pessoa began his graduate studies in jazz saxophone and composition/arranging at University of Louisville School of Music. At UofL he worked with John La Barbera (composition)and Mike Tracy (saxophone). As a graduate teaching assistant, Mr. Pessoa directed the Brasilian Ensemble and co-directed the Jazz Ensemble II. Anderson graduated December 2009 and was recognized as the outstanding graduating student. He received the Dean’s Citation and was one of the featured commencement speakers.

From the Fall 2009 to 2010 , Mr. Pessoa taught jazz arranging I and II, directed the Brazilian Ensemble and the Jazz Ensemble II as sabbatical replacement for John LaBarbera and Jerry Tolson. During this period, he toured Russia with the quintet Mixolegion, which was comprised of other graduate students from UofL. The album “The Mixolegion Quintet” was recorded following the tour.

In 2010 Mr. Pessoa moved back to Brazil and got the position of saxophone and improvisation professor at Escola de música da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. There he created a free improvisation ensemble anda jazz improvisation class. He has also recorded the album “tem Um Candango La Em Casa” containing eight original compositions. He also organized and directed the first ENSAX (Northeast saxofone congress).