YAMANDU COSTA & ORQUESTRA SINFÔNICA MUNICIPAL DE SÃO PAULO – Contrabando (2022)

Concerto “Grandes Estreias” (julho de 2022) sob a regência do maestro Roberto Minczuk, no Teatro Municipal de São Paulo. “Grandes Estreias” [Great Debuts] Concert (July 2022) conducted by maestro Roberto Minczuk at the Municipal Theater of São Paulo.

Born January 24, 1980, in Passo Fundo, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Yamandu Costa is a Brazilian guitarist and composer. His main instrument is the Brazilian seven-stringed classical guitar.

Yamandu began to study guitar at age seven with his father, Algacir Costa, leader of the group Os Fronteiriços [The Frontiersmen] and mastered the instrument after studying with Lúcio Yanel, an Argentine virtuoso who lived in Brazil. At age of 15, Yamandu began to study southern Brazilian folk music, as well as the music of Argentina and Uruguay.

Influenced by the music of Radamés Gnattali, he began to study the music of other Brazilians, such as Baden Powell, Tom Jobim, and Raphael Rabello. At age of 17, he played in São Paulo for the first time at the Cultural Circuit Bank of Brazil; the concert was produced by Study Tone Brazil.

Yamandu’s diverse styles include chorinho, bossa nova, milonga, tango, samba and chamamé. He appeared in Mika Kaurismäki’s 2005 documentary film Brasileirinho.

His album Vento Sul was considered one of the 25 best Brazilian albums of the second half of 2019 by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics. In 2021, his album Toquinho e Yamandu Costa – Bachianinha (Live at Rio Montreux Jazz Festival) won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Album.