Augusto Brandt (1892 in Puerto Cabello – 1942 in Caracas) was a Venezuelan composer and violinist.

Early life

The son of German immigrants, and younger brother of writer Carlos Brandt, he had piano lessons with Ana Jhan Wittestone as a child, and composed his first pieces at the age of six. From 1903, he studied violin in Caracas. In the municipal theatre of his town, in 1910, he composed a triumphal march for the centenary of the independence of Venezuela.

Career

With a scholarship of 60 bolivares from the Puerto Cabello local government official Lopez Bello, on December 23, 1909, he went to Belgium. There, he was a pupil of César Thomson at the Brussels Conservatory, from which he graduated with first prize in the violin. He then lived in New York City, where he was first violinist of the orchestra at the Paramount Theater. Later, he joined the orchestra of the radio station WOR. Here, he initially served as first violinist, and later as a solo violinist and conductor.

Later life

After the death of the dictator Juan Vicente Gómez, Brandt returned to Venezuela, where he and his brother Carlos Brandt, earned prestige due to their commitment to human rights.

Works