About Dr. Pedro Sá
Dr. Pedro Sá has been a timpanist for four uninterrupted decades, and since 2002, he has been a principal timpanist at Opes in Rio de Janeiro. He performed with this orchestra the world premiere of the Concertante for Timpani and Orchestra by Dimitri Cervo, written and dedicated to him, and toured with Opes throughout Brazil and Mexico, conducted by Hubert Soudant, Antoni Wit and Krzysztof Penderecki, among others. Before joining Opes, he joined OSB (Brazilian Symphony Orchestra) at the age of sixteen as principal timpanist – a rare experience in a professional orchestra – and performed at Lincoln Center (New York), in addition to having performed with Luciano Pavarotti and Kurt Masur, among others.
Pedro studied percussion with Luiz D’Anunciação and attended OPI (Oberlin Percussion Institute) in Ohio, where he also gave Brazilian percussion masterclass and was taught by Michael Rosen and Al Otte, besides timpani lessons with Paul Yancich in Cleveland. Also, he holds a master’s and doctor’s degree in Music from Unirio.
Pedro has been Adjunct Professor of Percussion at the UFRJ School of Music since 2007, where he innovated by creating the UFRJ Percussion Laboratory, which teaches percussion writing to composers, thus contributing to the expansion and evolution of the repertoire for percussion groups, works that are interpreted by his students in the UFRJ Percussion Group.
As a chamber percussionist, he is part of the Abstrai Ensemble, a group that works mainly in collaborations with living composers (Brazilian and foreign), also interacting with digital technologies (electroacoustics and mixed music). Together with Janaína Sá, he is a founding member of the Duo Sá de Percussão, having performed at PASIC(s) in the editions of San Antonio and Indianapolis. Pedro is proudly an Artist/Performer–Clinician of Adams Percussion, Black Swamp Percussion, Encore Mallets, Inc. – Salyers Percussion and JGpercussion.
