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Veiga Jardim
Oswaldo da Veiga Jardim Neto is a Brazilian conductor, composer and researcher of Italian-Portuguese descent who lives in Macau, People’s Republic of China.

Biography
Born in Rio de Janeiro, son of the Brazilian journalist Gontran da Veiga Jardim and grandson of a bandmaster, Oswaldo Veiga Jardim initially studied piano and began appearing as a conductor at the age of seventeen. After Conducting and Composition studies in Rio de Janeiro, he graduated with Magna Cum Laude in Conducting and Composition from the School of Music of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) where he studied with Raphael Baptista and Roberto Duarte. While at the university, Veiga Jardim also studied with Brazilian masters Murillo Santos, Henrique Morelembaum, Virgínia Fiuza, Andrely Quintella, Hilda Reis, Ricardo Tacuchian and Myrian Dauelsberg, among others.

Student and assistant, for several years, of the late David Machado (himself a disciple of great conductors such as Sergiu Celibidache, Franco Ferrara and Wolfgang Sawallisch) at the Rio de Janeiro Youth Symphony Orchestra, Veiga Jardim also studied in Italy, at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana (received a grant from the Istituto Italo Latino Americano), with Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdstvensky, who honoured him with a recommendation for a scholarship in Moscow.

Winner of several awards and scholarships as a composer, pianist and conductor, among them a special prize at the Gino Marinuzzi Competition in Italy (1987), Veiga Jardim came to Macau in 1989 where he played a pivotal role, as Conductor and Artistic Director of the Macau Chamber Orchestra and founder of the Macau Sinfonietta (predecessor of the Macau Orchestra), in promoting musical appreciation in the enclave. Described by the press as “sparkling and energetic”, Veiga Jardim has attracted intense acclaim from critics and the general public in his appearances conducting the major choirs and orchestras in his native land — Orquestra Sinfônica da Paraíba, Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, Choir and Orchestra of Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro Youth Symphony Orchestra, Brasília Youth Symphony Orchestra, MEC Radio Choir, Minas Gerais Symphony Orchestra — as well as abroad — Gulbenkian Choir (Portugal), Hong Kong Oratorio Society, City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Rousse State Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), Orchestra Sinfonica di San Remo (Italy), Prague Philharmonic (Czech Republic), China Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, Central Opera Symphony Orchestra of China, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Shanghai Opera Chorus. Veiga Jardim combines his conducting commitments with film scoring (he composed the soundtrack for the movie “The Bewitching Braid”), teaching and musicological research focusing his studies on Macau’s history of music. In 1996, Jardim designed and implemented (1997-2000) the curriculum of the Music Course at the Macau Polytechnic, the first music degree course created in Macau officially recognized by the government.

From 1992 to 2004 he has written the “Counterpoint” music column for Revista Macau, a magazine distributed world-wide and he is also author of the book Chinese Musical Instruments, released in 1999. His acclaimed performance of the Verdi’s Requiem, recorded live in 1999 at the Hong Kong City Hall is available on CD. Veiga Jardim has been working with great success with artists such as Peter Schreier, Yu Li Na, Liu Shi Kwan, Lim Kek Beng, Monique Duphill, Sequeira Costa, Chuanyuan Li, Cristina Ortiz, Olivia Newton-John and Hong Kong pop singer Jackie Cheung. As Conductor and Honorary Music Director of the Macau Youth Symphony, Jardim contributed decisively to its artistic development taking the orchestra on higly acclaimed tours of Singapore, Australia, Europe and Mainland China performing in prestigious venues such as the Victoria Hall (Singapore), Hongkong Cultural Centre, Smetana Hall (Prague), Salzuburger Mozarteum and the Wiener Musikverein Grosser Saal. Since 2001 Veiga Jardim has a seat on the Consultative Council for Cultural Affairs of the Macau SAR government and in 2007, he was awarded the Medal of Culture by the government of MSAR for his outstanding services to music in Macau.