Ricardo BALLESTEROS

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Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Ricardo Ballestero holds an Associate Professor position at the University of São Paulo (Brazil’s foremost university), where he teaches vocal repertoire for singers, lyric diction, collaborative piano skills and score reading. He has been a visiting faculty at the University of Colorado-Boulder for one academic year and has given master classes and lectures at the University of Indiana-Bloomington, University Musical Society of the University of Michigan, Conservatorio Joaquín Rodrigo de Valencia (Spain), as well as at several Brazilian universities and music schools.

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He has performed with instrumentalists Atar Arad, Erling Blöndal Bengtsson, Ray Chen Alex Klein, and Hansjörg Schellenberger, as well with singers Luretta Bybbe, Luis Lima, Alicia Nafe, Nicholas Phan, Julie Simson, and Eiko Senda. His engagements have taken him to the most important cities of Brazil and also to the USA, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Serbia and Argentina.

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He has accompanied lessons and master classes of Ann Murray, François LeRoux, Grace Bumbry, Kathleen Kaun, Stephen King, Rudolf Piernay, Julie Simson, Shirley Verrett, and Kiri Te Kanawa.

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Mr. Ballestero received his doctorate from the University of Michigan, where he studied the specialized field of Collaborative Piano with Martin Katz. He has also studied at Westminster Choir College, where he finished his master’s degree in Accompanying under the guidance of Dalton Baldwin and J. J. Penna and at the University of São Paulo, where he received his bachelor’s degree in piano. He was a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio in 2003/04