Cléa Galhano to Receive ARS Presidential Special Honor Award


The ARS Presidential Special Honor Award is intended to honor a person who has had a significant positive impact on the ARS, the Board, or recorder music in North America. Brazilian recorder player Cléa Galhano, a longtime ARS member who has served on its Board, is an internationally renowned performer of early, contemporary and Brazilian music -- which is why ARS Board President Carol Mishler chose her for this well-deserved honor. It will be presented to Galhano at the Boston Early Music Festival at the Recorder Relay Concert on June 9, 2023.

Galhano has performed in the United States, Canada, South America and Europe as a chamber musician, collaborating with recorder player Marion Verbruggen, Jacques Ogg, Belladonna, Lanzelotte/Galhano Duo and  Kingsbury Ensemble. As a featured soloist, Galhano has worked with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Musical Offering and Lyra Baroque Orchestra.

Among other important music festivals, Ms. Galhano has performed at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Tage Alter Music Festival in Germany, Wigmore Hall in London, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall in New York and Palazzo Santa Croce in Rome, always receiving acclaimed reviews. Ms. Galhano was featured in 2006 in the Second International Recorder Congress in Leiden, Holland; in 2007 and 2013 at the International Recorder Conference in Montréal; in 2009 at the ARS's 70th anniversary Festival in St. Louis, Missouri; and in 2012 at the ARS International Conference, Portland, Oregon. She gave her Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall debut in May 2010 and her second Weill Hall recital on December 2013 with the international Cuban guitarist Rene Izquierdo.

Galhano studied in Brazil at Faculdade Santa Marcelina, the Royal Conservatory (The Hague), and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, earning a LASPAU, Fulbright Scholarship and support from the Dutch government. As an advocate of recorder music and educational initiatives, she served on the national board of the American Recorder Society from 1996-2002, and is the Music Director of the Recorder Orchestra of the Midwest. She was invited multiple times to present sessions at the annual conference of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, providing a vital link between that organization and the ARS during Ms. Galhano's time on the ARS Board. Ms. Galhano received the prestigious 2013 McKnight fellowship award, Minnesota State Arts Board Cultural collaborative and MSAB Arts Initiative.

Currently, she is a faculty member at Macalester College, as well as the Music Director of the Recorder Orchestra of the Midwest. She was appointed in 2018 as Adjunct Lecturer in Music, Recorder at the Historical Performance Institute, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, where she has recently revived the Historical Performance Academy for pre-college musicians.

Ms. Galhano has recordings available on Dorian, Ten Thousand Lakes and Eldorado label and she is the recipient of the National Arts Associate of Sigma Alpha Iota.

Other recipients of the Presidential Special Honor Award include:
David Goldstein, 2003
Carolyn Peskin, 2005
Marie-Louise Smith, 2005
Connie Primus, 2006
Anthony Rowland-Jones, 2007
Shirley Robbins, 2007
Corlu Collier & Oregon Coast Recorder Society, 2009
Louise Austin, 2011
Peter Seibert, 2012
Gail Nickless, 2014
Eric Haas, 2019
Glen Shannon, 2022