User:ElijahValongo/sandbox

= Elijah Valongo =

Elijah Shane-Ribas Valongo (Born January 11, 2000) is an American born Brazilian composer and pianist from New York. Cultivated from early childhood, Valongo's musical voice would undergo drastic stylistic renewals along with an always subtle presence of South American rhythms. This presence of what would be exotic meters in traditional western classical music grows more prominent in his style every year and mutating over time from its genesis. Valongo is one among the growing numbers of young musical pioneers of New York City, as he is the product of a growing presence of ambitious youth following their passion for music, the mainstream culture of music, a prototypical pop culture that seems to be a renaissance in the performing arts; as there has been nothing like it.

Early Life
Elijah Valongo was born in Newark, New Jersey approximately a month after his mother emigrated from Brazil to United States with her family, leaving his father, Samir Valongo and his family behind in Recife, Brazil. When he was born, he lived in Harrison, New Jersey and lived with his mother (Gabriella Spinelli), sister (Radharani [Radha] Valongo) and grandmother (Veruska [Vovo Vera] Spinelli). Never staying in one home than more than 2 years in the first decade of his life, Valongo frequently moved back and forth between Harrison and its neighboring county named Kearny, New Jersey. In 2007, he moved to Pennsylvania but then returned to Harrison a year later. Interestingly, Valongo did not spend his early childhood in a musical setting, apart from his mother, who was a singer in a Brazilian pop band in the mid 90's.

Valongo's Grandfather (Jacinto "Titus" Ribas) lived in Harlem, New York for 20 years prior to Valongo's birth and in 2009 came to Harrison and, deciding his grandchildren needed more direction in their lives, brought Valongo and his sister to New York City every weekend to stay with him in his studio apartment, and coached them in music.

Education
Valongo moved to New York City and soon went on to study classical piano with Sergey Krivonos at Lucy Moses School in Manhattan. Becoming a member of Very Young Composer's Bridge at New York Philharmonic in 2010, he began working under Dr. David Wallace and Jon Deak, who is Director of VYC. He graduated in 2014. He then enrolled in Juilliard Pre-college/MAP division in 2012 and studied piano under Major Scurlock and Jeremy Jordan. He studied composition under Dr. Huang Ruo. He enrolled in Special Music School High School in 2014 majoring in music composition and studied under Dr. Kyle Blaha. He also worked under Dr. Robinson Mclellan and Max Grafe. He is currently undergoing the process to apply for a musical conservatory in NYC.

Early Career
Valongo's initial start in performance was in 2012 composing for New York Philharmonic's "Young People's Concerts" hosted by Theodore Wiprud. He composed a short orchestral miniature that was featured on an NBC news segment along with an interview of the young composer. He went on to compose for numerous more venues for the New York Philharmonic's program, ranging from solo works to string quartets to larger ensemble programs. Valongo went on to work briefly as a teaching artist intern at VYC Bridge in 2016-2017. Valongo also worked as a pianist and composer in Kaufman's "Face the Music NYC" playing in the Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestra, and the "Samurai Mama Big Band". He composed "String Quartet Number 4" for FTM's String Quartet "This Side Up", and "Concerto for Buildings" for Make Music New York's Summer Project of 2015 in Soho's street performance. He worked under Jenny Undercofler, Vasudevan Panicker, Ian Monroe, and Aakash Mittal in his time at Face The Music and has performed at numerous venues around the city and country. In the summer of 2015, Valongo accompanied Jenny Undercofler and Paris Lavidis to The Walden School's "Young Musician's Program" to work as musicians for the student composers. Working alongside ICE ensemble, Valongo performed 4 hand piano works by Ligeti with Jacob Greenberg and an ensemble work by Paris Lavidis with the rest of the ICE members.

Personal Life
Valongo currently lives in New York City and enjoys studying chemistry, alchemy, occult sciences and psychology/neurology. He is an avid wilderness lover and will travel to hiking locations whenever possible.