Hamilton De Holanda

Relocating to Brasília with his family at the age of one, Hamilton de Holanda received a mandolin from his grandfather upon reaching five. His father, the choro violonista, nurtured the early skills of both Hamilton and his brother Fernando César de Holanda on violão, enabling the siblings to perform regularly alongside established choro players in the city from a very young age. The pair soon formed a duo that Pernambuco do Pandeiro christened Dois de Ouro. While still a child Hamilton also studied violin at the Escola de Música de Brasília. Prior collaborations with Hermeto Pascoal, Zélia Duncan, Marco Pereira, Marcos Ariel, Rosa Passos and others had already marked him as a child prodigy whose virtuosity on the choro mandolin would later be confirmed. In addition to his solo work he teaches mandolin at the University of Brasília and at the Escola de Choro Raphael Rabello.

The II Choro Festival of Rio de Janeiro State in 1995 brought him the award for best interpreter as well as second place for his choro “Destroçando a Macaxeira.” Three years later he placed third in the I Prêmio Visa de MPB Instrumental. Two albums with Dois de Ouro, one with violonista Marco Pereira, and several solo projects appeared before he performed at the 2000 Free Jazz Festival and, the following year, in the Brasileirinho project at Rio’s CCBB.

Velas Brazil issued his self-titled solo album in 2002. After a year of touring, the 2004 release Música das Nuvens e do Chão presented mostly pieces by other composers, with one original contribution from de Holanda. The fully self-composed Musica de Hamilton de Holanda followed in 2005, the same year that saw both the solo live recording 01 Bytes 10 Cordas and the collaborative De Bandolim a Bandolim with Joel Nascimento. Four albums emerged in 2006, including Samba do Aviao and the widely praised Brasilianos. Continua Amizade and Intimo arrived in 2007, succeeded in 2008 by The Continuous Friendship, a joint project with André Mehmari. Brasilianos 2 and the duo recording Yamandú Costa e Hamilton de Holanda with guitarist Yamandu Costa were released in 2009. Live! appeared in 2010, and four further albums, among them Gismonti Pascoal with Mehmari and Brasilianos 3, came out in 2011. De Holanda made his ECM debut in 2013 with O Que Será, recorded in collaboration with Italian pianist Stefano Bollani.