Eunice Katunda

Eunice Katunda (also spelled Catunda) (née do Monte Lima) was a Brazilian pianist, composer, music educator, lecturer, and poet. Katunda was born in Rio de Janeiro on March 14, 1915, and died at 76 years old on August 3, 1990 in São José dos Campos. Education and Career Showing signs of being a child prodigy, Katunda began playing the piano at just two years old. She learned piano with Mima Oswald from age of 5 to 8, then with Branca Bilhar from age 9 to 12, and then with Oscar Guanabarino from age 13 to 21. In around 1934, she moved to São Paulo where she studied piano with Marieta Lion. In 1946 she returned to Rio de Janeiro and began her studies with Hans-Joachim Koellreutter. In her compositional studies, she was especially interested in avant-garde and modern composers and she expanded her knowledge of counterpoint, musical aesthetics, orchestration, and arrangement. Katunda continued to compose until 1983, with her most prolific period being the 1950s and 1960s. She could speak and write in three languages, English, French, and Italian. Personal life Katunda’s parents were Rubens do Monte Lima from Rio Grande do Sul and Maria Grauben Bomilcar, a native painter from Ceará. Her