Heitor Villa-Lobos

Heitor Villa-Lobos at the top of a kind of pedestal, with a megaphone. The photograph shows the composer and conductor organizing schoolchildren who will participate in an orpheonic concentration held at the stadium of the Fluminense football team in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The following inscription on the photo reads: “Preparing the placement of students in the“ Fluminense Foot-Ball Club ”. Orpheonic Concentration 24-10 -1932 - Rio ”. In February 1932, Villa-Lobos assumed the direction of the Music and Orphonic Singing Service and helped to institute mandatory teaching of music in public schools. With the support of Getúlio Vargas, then President of the Republic in Brazil, Villa-Lobos organized and governed the so-called orpheonic concentrations, which brought together up to 40 thousand students to carry out the practice of choral singing.