Afro Brazilians are mourning the sudden passing of renowned composer and conductor, Letieres Leite, who died Wednesday at the age of 61, at his home in the city of Salvador.
The cause of death has not yet been disclosed.
In the early 1980s, the composer moved to the Southern region of the country, where he worked with the Porto Alegre Symphonic Orchestra, and played with names such as Nei Lisboa, Renato Borghetti, and Elton Saldanha. In 1985, he moved to Austria, where he graduated from the Konservatorium Franz Schubert in Vienna. After six years, he returned to Brazil and set up the Bahia Academy of Music.
Leite was adored as the leader of the Rumpilezz Institute and Orchestra, in Bahia. In 2006, the instrumentalist, composer and researcher created the institute as a vehicle not only for the creation of music but also an incubator for cultural projects and research. He immediately set out to catalog information about the Bahia percussive culture, Afro-Bahian music and the educational transfer of this knowledge.
In March, the conductor began celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Orkestra Rumpillez, with which Letieres recorded two albums, toured internationally in Europe and the United States, won many awards and inspired academic research and documentaries.
Below is a video of Leite conducting the group in concert with Kamasi Washington
Through Rumpilezz, Leite’s methods proudly experiment with music through oral and written languages. They work with 75 musicians between 15 and 25 years old organized in three orchestral groups of 25 young people each, in three levels of experience. The laboratory believes that it is possible to empower young artists through a new look at popular music and its multiple subjectivities.
In a statement to CNN, the institute stated that “it is a shock to all of us. He was fine. It will be missed, but it also leaves a giant legacy for Brazilian music.”
