Rafael Bittencourt

Rafael Bittencourt is a guitarist, composer and the founder member of the worldwide known band Angra, that completes 15 years on the road, in October 2006. Reaching over 1 million copies sold all over the world, his musical career is almost fully connected to the band’s history, having his CDs released for dozens of countries.
Together with the release of his last studio album called “Rebirth”, Rafael has played over a hundred concerts around the world and featured many TV shows in Brazil.
In 1989, Rafael finished High School in Nebraska, where he won the Louis Armstrong Award for the best Big Band soloist, playing the electric guitar. He also played the tuba for two orchestras, took part in different choir groups and studied drama arts, wining the Nebraska’s state championship together with the drama school group.
In 1990, back in Brazil, he joined the music college school and decided to start a heavy-metal band in which he could input some of his classical material combined with his Latin roots. At that time, he started to write music and to collect ideas for his band which soon would be known as Angra.
In 1996, he graduated as a composer and conductor at the Santa Marcelina School of Arts, in São Paulo.
Since the age of seventeen, he’s been teaching music in many different places. From 1999 to 2003 he was the director of the Language and Musical Structure Course (LMSC) at the EM&T (Music and Technology School) in São Paulo, and taught advanced guitar techniques in the Souza Lima Music School (The only South American music school that provides a Berkley certificate).
He was chosen as best guitarist of 2002 by “21st Century Metal” (an European web site) and his name is always listed among the best guitarists and composers on the magazine charts in Brazil, Asia and Europe.

He has written as a columnist for some of the best guitar magazines in Brazil, like “Cover Guitar” and “Guitar Class” and have collaborated for the “Brazilian Guitar Player” many times.

Nowadays, besides of his band activities, he is a music producer and does a lot of workshops and clinics all over Brazil and other countries, where he covers a variety of subjects, such like his composing and guitar playing style, equipment specifications, how to run a successful group, studio and live experiences, harmony, structure, ear training and a lot more, always well supported by his sponsors: Yamaha (electric guitars), M-Audio (Home and Professional Studio Gear), Meteoro (amplifiers), NIG (strings), Santo Ângelo (cables), Takamine (acoustic guitars), Audio-Technika (Microphones).