João Guilherme Ripper

João Guilherme Ripper (born 1959 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian composer and conductor. João Guilherme Ripper is a composer, conductor, cultural manager and professor at the School of Music of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He studied with Henrique Morelenbaum and Ronaldo Miranda. In 1997, Ripper obtained his D.M.A. in Composition at The Catholic University of America, in Washington D.C., under the guidance of German composer Helmut Braunlich and Argentine musicologist Emma Garmendia. He pursued further studies in Orchestral Conducting with Maestro Guillermo Scarabino in Argentina, and attended the class of “Économie et Financement de la Culture” at the Université Paris-Dauphine, in France. Ripper served as Director of the School of Music of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro between 1999 and 2003. In 2004, he accepted the invitation of the Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro to direct Sala Cecília Meireles, a leading chamber music hall, where he remained for 11 years and undertook a comprehensive renovation. In 2015, he was appointed President of the Municipal Theater Foundation of Rio de Janeiro, the city’s opera house, a position he held until 2017. Rip