BIOGRAPHY
He studied clarinet and violoncelo with his father, Raul Villa-Lobos, amateur musician. Autodidact, he obtained titles as PhD in Music at the University of Miami, PhD in Musical Rules at the Occidental College of Los Angeles, Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of New York and Correspondent Member of the Institute of France and of the Santa Cecilia Academy of Rome. He took part in the Modern Arts Week movement, in 1922 in São Paulo; he founded and was president of the Brazilian Music Academy, in 1945 in Rio de Janeiro. As conductor, he taped a large part of his work, as the cycle of Choros and the Bachianas Brasileiras, with the ORTF (French Radio Broadcasting National Orchestra). When he returned to Brazil and assumed the Superintendence of Musical and Artistic Education (Sema) in Rio de Janeiro, where he had the opportunity to develop his project of mass musical education.