Nova in Rio: The Young Trumpeter Shaping His Sound One Note at a Time
When editor Claudio Harris met Nova in Rio de Janeiro at Sesc Copacabana the conversation moved quickly beyond the usual opening questions. It landed somewhere more revealing: that quiet space where talent becomes craft, and craft slowly becomes a life.
Nova is young, unmistakably gifted, and refreshingly grounded. He does not speak like someone chasing a moment. He speaks like someone building a vocabulary one note, one rehearsal, one decision at a time. In a city defined by movement, noise and seduction, there is something disarming about his calm. It feels as if the instrument itself has taught him patience.
“The trumpet chose me”
Nova’s story begins the way many real stories do: not with spectacle, but with circumstance.
At nine years old, in church, the trumpet was not a childhood dream or a carefully designed plan. It was simply the instrument available. Someone handed it to him and, in effect, wrote the first line of his life in music: this is the one you are going to play.
What could have remained accidental became something far more lasting.
His father was sceptical at first and understandably so. The trumpet is demanding. It asks for breath, stamina, facial control and discipline. It is not an easy instrument for a child. But Nova stayed with it. He grew into it. And he never let it go.
There is something quietly poetic in that journey: an instrument chosen for him becoming the one he chooses, again and again, every day since.
Nova in Rio and the reality of building a music career
Nova’s present is shaped by the unglamorous, often unseen reality of early artistry the part people rarely post online. It is made of saying yes to opportunities, staying open, learning by doing, and keeping momentum when nobody is promising you anything.
He is currently working on music direction for a short film while also performing wherever he can not to chase attention, but to keep moving, keep earning, and keep playing. He is already looking ahead, too, with new singles planned for 2026 and the milestone of his first live show.
On paper, it may not sound dramatic. In practice, this is exactly where careers are built.
Not through grand declarations, but through repetition. Through discipline. Through small leaps of faith that slowly turn potential into presence.
When Nova speaks about this stage of life, you feel the seriousness behind his choices. Not pressure commitment. The kind of commitment that separates the merely promising from the inevitable.
The sound that raised him
Ask a young musician what they are listening to and you learn more than taste you learn temperament.
Nova’s influences sketch a clear creative identity: an instrumental foundation rooted in jazz, paired with a listening world shaped by modern Brazilian voices and emotional precision.
On rotation are artists such as Tim Bernardes, Marina Sena and Liniker musicians who move between intimacy and boldness, lyricism and atmosphere, with a softness that still lands with force.
Beyond Brazil, he names Frank Ocean without hesitation as a major idol a telling reference. It suggests Nova is drawn to artistry that feels cinematic, private and emotionally exact.
And when the conversation turns to Brazil’s greats, he does not reach for easy name-dropping. He reaches for lineage: Milton Nascimento, Chico Buarque, Djavan and Lô Borges names that carry history, elegance and the emotional intelligence that has long defined Brazilian music.
It becomes clear very quickly that Nova is not only learning how to play. He is learning where he comes from.
Why Nova sings — even if it is not the main thing
Nova also writes. And, as he explains, writing eventually demands a voice.
Singing entered his life for a practical reason: lyrics have to be sung. Yet he is careful not to perform confidence for the sake of image. He describes his relationship with singing with respect, placing it behind creativity and trumpet secondary, even tertiary.
That honesty feels rare.
It also signals a deeper artistic maturity: the confidence to say I am still becoming without turning it into self-doubt. In an era that expects artists to be everything, all at once, Nova seems more interested in doing a few things properly and allowing the rest to arrive in time.
A young trumpeter in Rio with a long-view mindset
Some artists lead with ambition. Nova leads with commitment.
A trumpet placed in the hands of a nine-year-old in church has become a craft he continues to honour now expanding into film work, live performance and new releases on the horizon. In a culture that often rewards speed, Nova’s pace feels like a statement: steady, intentional and quietly serious.
What makes Nova compelling is not only talent. It is the sense that the trumpet is not a prop for attention. It is a compass.
And he is following it.
Team Credits
Artist: Nova (@novaoriginal_)
Concept: Nova and Pedro Marchiori
Creative Direction: Pedro Marchiori (@pedromarchiorie)
Photography: Arthur Lara Freire (@Lf.arthur)
Photography Assistant: Eduardo Saveri (@rasseveri)
Retouching and Color Grading: Arthur Lara Freire (@Lf.arthur)
