Flavio Venturini

Flávio Venturini built a distinguished solo career while remaining active in 14 Bis, widely recognized as one of Brazil’s leading contemporary vocal and instrumental ensembles. As part of the Clube da Esquina circle of songwriters from Minas Gerais, he supplied material that Peter Gabriel, Milton Nascimento, Nana Caymmi, Beto Guedes, Leila Pinheiro, Jane Duboc, Emílio Santiago, and Simone, among others, have recorded. His catalog of successful pieces encompasses “Todo Azul do Mar,” “Caçador de Mim” (with Luís Carlos Sá), “Espanhola” (with Gutemberg Guarabyra), “Planeta Sonho” (with Vermelho/Márcio Borges), “Pensando em Você” (with Kimura), “Nascente” (with M. Antunes), and “Clube da Esquina 2” (with Lô Borges/Márcio Borges/Milton Nascimento). The 1994 release Noites Com Sol marked his first gold record under his own name.

Venturini began formal music lessons at fifteen, concentrating first on the accordion. He later entered the Fundação de Educação Artística de Belo Horizonte to pursue studies in musical perception and piano, then advanced his training in composition and arranging under Walter Smetak, Ernest Widmer, Bruno Kiefer, Ailton Escobar, Cláudia Cimbleris, and Rogério Duprat. His initial public appearances occurred during the Winter Festivals of Minas Gerais in the 1960s. Throughout the following decade he performed with regional groups including the Shines, Os Turbulentos, and Crisalis at dance events, while also entering the Festival Estudantil da Canção, the Festival Universitário de Belo Horizonte—where he earned second place—and the 1970 edition of the Festival Internacional da Canção in Rio de Janeiro. During those years he aligned himself with the Clube da Esquina collective, taking part in the Fio da Navalha presentations alongside Lô Borges, Beto Guedes, Tavinho Moura, Toninho Horta, Vermelho, Zé Eduardo, and fellow Minas Gerais composers. After relocating to São Paulo in 1974 he joined O Terço, remaining until 1977; that same year the Royal Ballet of Canada featured his composition “1974” on tours across Canada and the United States. His “Nascente” appeared on Milton Nascimento’s album Clube da Esquina No. 2, an LP on which Venturini also contributed as an instrumentalist, and he and Beto Guedes later joined the supporting tour. In 1979 he co-founded 14 Bis with Vermelho.

Venturini launched his solo recording career in 1982 with the album Nascente, maintaining parallel commitments to 14 Bis through 1987. Beginning that same year he turned to film scoring, creating music for the award-winning productions Quando Os Morcegos Se Calam, Viagem de Ônibus, and Instinto Animal, as well as for Sílvio Back’s Aleluia Gretchen and the theatrical work Hilda Furacão. He appeared at the 1989 Free Jazz Festival and joined Toninho Horta for a Circo Voador concert that was captured and issued on record in 1987. Additional collaborations followed with Lô Borges, Zé Renato, Beto Guedes, and Wagner Tiso, among them the program Minas Em Concerto. His first performances outside Brazil took place in the United States and Canada during the 1990s. At Santiago de Compostela in Spain he took part in the Missa dos Quilombos marking the five-hundredth anniversary of the European discovery of the Americas.