Legendary Brazilian Pianist & Conductor João Carlos Martins Bids Farewell to His North American Conducting Career at Carnegie Hall

Legendary Brazilian Pianist & Conductor João Carlos Martins Bids Farewell to His North American Conducting Career with an Unforgettable Evening at Carnegie Hall on Friday, May 9, 2025

Internationally renowned pianist and conductor João Carlos Martins leads NOVUS in a program celebrating J.S. Bach and his influence on the preeminent Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, alongside beloved selections by Tom Jobim, Astor Piazzolla, John Williams, and Ennio Morricone

Bionic extender gloves enable Martins to play piano for a series of selections in the program

NEW YORK, NY – More than six decades after making his Carnegie Hall debut, celebrated Brazilian pianist and conductor João Carlos Martins, widely regarded as one of the greatest modern interpreters of J.S. Bach at the keyboard, returns to Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage on Friday, May 9, 2025, at 7:30 PM to conduct and perform as a soloist in his farewell concert at Carnegie Hall, where he made his debut as a solo recitalist in 1967.

On the eve of his 85th birthday, Martins will take the stage one last time at Carnegie Hall to lead NOVUS in a João Carlos Martins Concert. The evening begins with an homage to J.S. Bach, the composer who has most profoundly shaped Martins’s musical life. He then traces Bach’s influence on Brazil’s pre-eminent 20th-century composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos. For the second half of the program, Martins will take on the role of piano soloist while his colleague Edson Beltrami leads the orchestra in a selection of pieces by Tom Jobim, Astor Piazzolla, John Williams, and Ennio Morricone – composers he often turns to in order to advance his mission of expanding the audience for classical music.

Thanks to a pair of bionic extender gloves designed for him by industrial designer Ubiratan Bizarro Costa, Martins regained the ability to play the piano for the first time in two decades in 2020 – a deeply moving moment captured in a globally viral video. Martins had lost his ability to play as the result of focal dystonia for musicians, compounded by a series of tragic accidents, neurological episodes, and a brutal mugging. To date, he has endured 31 surgeries to ameliorate his physical challenges, which compelled him to set aside a flourishing international career as a solo pianist. Since the early 2000s, Martins has channeled his passion for music into conducting and educational initiatives to improve access to music.

The concert opens with the Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major by Johann Sebastian Bach, regarded by Martins as a foundational work of the symphonic genre, which will be juxtaposed with selections from the Bachianas brasileiras by Heitor Villa-Lobos, illustrating Bach’s enduring influence. Martins will conduct NOVUS.

The second half of the evening comprises a tribute to 20th-century and contemporary composers Martins admires and to whom he often turns in his dedication to bringing classical music to audiences worldwide. The selections include “Luíza,” “Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar,” and “Insensatez” by the influential Brazilian songwriter Antônio Carlos Jobim, whose bossa nova classics resonate worldwide; Libertango and Adiós Nonino by Astor Piazzolla, the revolutionary Argentine composer who redefined tango; themes from Schindler’s List and E.T. by John Williams, the beloved film score composer whose music continues to captivate audiences of all ages; and “Playing Love,” “Gabriel’s Oboe,” and “Cinema Paradiso” by the iconic Italian film composer Ennio Morricone, cherished for his evocative and unforgettable cinematic scores. Edson Beltrami will take over at the podium while Martins dons his bionic extender gloves to perform solos at the piano.

Described as “one of the most important pianists in the world” by The New York Times and “a musical hero” by The New Yorker, João Carlos Martins was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1940 and made his formal debut at 18 at the Casals Music Festival in Puerto Rico. International attention grew in 1961 when, at age 20, he made his U.S. debut in Washington, D.C., performing all 48 Preludes and Fugues from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, a work that became one of his specialties.

His Carnegie Hall debut followed in March 1962, when Eleanor Roosevelt sponsored his performance with the National Symphony Orchestra as the soloist in Alberto Ginastera's Piano Concerto No.1. Martins subsequently appeared with major orchestras, played Bach recitals worldwide, and documented his artistry in recordings – including of the complete works for keyboard by J.S. Bach. The Boston Globe characterized Martins as “the most exciting player of Bach on the modern piano to emerge since Glenn Gould.”

Unfortunately, a series of accidents and neurological episodes beginning in 1966 forced Martins to abandon his career by 1970. He made a comeback in 1978, playing the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier at Carnegie Hall to a sellout crowd. The celebrated concert hall in New York City has served as the venue for several pivotal moments in Martins’s illustrious career. He resumed giving concerts and embarked upon a now-legendary recording of the complete keyboard works of J.S. Bach.

Further neurological difficulties in 1985 required prolonged treatment, but by 1993 Martins was able to resume his recording and concertizing career. Tragically, two years later, he was violently attacked while recording in Bulgaria and left with only limited use of his hands.

Maestro Martins soon found a new outlet for his creative expression and a way to benefit less-fortunate Brazilians. In 2004, he formed the Bachiana Chamber Orchestra and the Bachiana Youth Orchestra, which started with about 45 teenagers, some from the poorest neighborhoods around São Paulo. Today, his 90-member Orquestra Bachiana Filarmônica SESI-SP performs over 2,000 concerts worldwide and in Brazil, where he continues to develop his projects.

Currently, Martins’s main project involves 750 associated community orchestras in Brazil. He hopes to democratize classical music for future generations by encouraging young musicians to participate in new orchestras. His goal is to involve 1,000 community orchestras. In 2010, he earned the highest Brazilian government award for a classical artist for his work.

In 2001, the book Conversations with Martins by David Dubal coincided with Martins’s new recordings of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. He was the subject of the 2004 German documentary Die Martins-Passion, which won several international awards. Martins was featured on the CNN Heroes series in 2016 and was the subject of João, O Maestro, a 2017 biographical feature film directed by Mauro Lima and produced by LC Barreto and Globo Filmes.

Trinity Church’s groundbreaking new-music ensemble, NOVUS, is a key player on the contemporary music scene. These “expert and versatile musicians” (The New Yorker) perform music from all corners of the repertoire, meeting “every challenge with an impressive combination of discipline and imagination” (New York Classical Review). NOVUS is renowned for its innovative programming that asks audiences to grapple with vital social issues. In 2023, NOVUS launched its Renewal series focused on prison reform and climate change. This season, NOVUS presented Renewal: Shelter, which explored the challenges of being unhoused in America and included the New York premiere of Gabriel Kahane’s compelling work emergency shelter intake form.

At the PROTOTYPE Festival, NOVUS and Trinity Church have partnered with Beth Morrison Projects in the development of several major new works.?These include Emma O’Halloran’s opera pairing?Trade/Mary Motorhead; two Pulitzer Prize–winning works: Ellen Reid’s p r i s m (2019) and Du Yun’s?Angel’s Bone (2017); Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s?Breaking the Waves; the East Coast premiere of Reid’s?Dreams of the New World; and the world premiere of David T. Little’s revised version of?Am I Born, which was recorded with NOVUS and Trinity Choir.

NOVUS has forged strong links with many of today’s leading composers. In 2023–24, NOVUS was featured in two world premiere oratorios: Luna Pearl Woolf’s Number Our Days at the Perelman Performing Arts Center and Benedict Sheehan’s Akathist. The ensemble’s recordings include 2 Grammy-nominated albums: Sheehan’s Akathist and LUNA PEARL WOOLF: Fire and Flood as well as Prestini’s?The Hubble Cantata; Du Yun’s?Angel’s Bone;?Trevor Weston’s Choral Works;?Elena Ruehr’s Averno; Edward Thomas’s new opera Anna Christie; Ellen Reid’s?p r i s m;?and Philip Glass: Symphony No. 5.? 

Friday, May 9, 2025, at 7:30 PM

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
JOÃO CARLOS MARTINS, conductor and pianist
NOVUS

Presented by Musica Codetta

Program:
J. S. BACH Orchestral Suite No. 3

VILLA-LOBOS Prelúdio from Bachianas brasileiras No. 4

VILLA-LOBOS Fuga from Bachianas brasileiras No. 7

JOBIM "Luíza"

JOBIM "Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar"

JOBIM "Insensatez"

PIAZZOLLA Libertango

PIAZZOLLA Adiós Nonino

JOHN WILLIAMS Theme from Schindler's List

JOHN WILLIAMS "Flying Theme" from E.T.

MORRICONE "Playing Love"

MORRICONE "Gabriel's Oboe" from The Mission

MORRICONE "Cinema Paradiso"

Tickets start at $6.50 and are available at carnegiehall.org, at the Carnegie Hall Box Office (57^th Street and Seventh Ave), or by calling Carnegie Hall at   1 212-247-7800.