Avantasia frontman / mastermind Tobias Sammet has checked in with the following message:

"It's been one year now since your heart stopped beating on the 8th of June 2019, maestro! A friend, an adorable artist - André Matos. Six days earlier we had shared the stage and we didn't even manage to say goodbye afterwards. We would get in touch a couple of days later, after the tour stress would have fallen off, it wasn't meant to happen. You were 47 years old. Way too young! I would have loved to work with you again. No one will be able to fill the gap you left in the music world. Nobody will have your voice, nobody is like you. Rest in peace my friend!

This is exactly what André was like on stage, nothing was retouched in the studio."

The history of Angra / Shaman vocalist Andre Matos’ life had its last chord played on June 8th, 2019. However, the career of the most international rock frontman in Brazil’s history will continue to move fans for quite a while. Paying tribute to the first anniversary of his departure, the family made the first trailer of the documentary, Andre Matos, The Rock’s Maestro, available over the internet  Filled with never-seen-before scenes from his personal archives and interviews with friends, family and rock musicians from all over the world, the movie vows to bring to the public a taste of Andre Matos off-stage’s personality.

The project started back in 2018, when Andre Matos himself authorized recording interviews where he would talk about his life and the different phases of his career. Directed by Anderson Bellini and produced and scripted by Thiago Rahal Mauro, the document had it starting point in a long interview where Andre Matos spoke for over 5 hours about all sort of different subjects. With his sudden passing in 2019, the family yielded this material as well as hundreds of other ones from his personal archives so that this film could be finalized.

This documentary will be released on September 14th, 2021, the date when Andre Matos would celebrate his 50th birthday. Launching and release formats are still in the works

Watch the trailer of Maestro do Rock (Rock’s Maestro) below.

Along with Matos’interview, there will be outdoor footage filmed by Renato Villegas and Patrick Nicolas Korb, as well as commentaries by Eco Moliterno as the family proxy.

“When we learned about this incredible tribute to Andre, all of us from the family decided to give our unconditional support so that this becomes the ultimate documentary about his life and work”, says Moliterno, Matos’ cousin. “This is why we provided them with all the pictures and videos of him at home with us, which is something so rare that no one else saw before. I am personally closely watching it to ensure that everything that will be released is accurate and true, and with the quality that Andre would have expected. He was that type of artist that is becoming harder to find these days: he liked to expose his work, but not his personal life. And, due to the fact that he was so reserved, we know for sure that this project holds several pleasant surprises in store for his fans.”

The documentary will include testimonials by worldwide renowned musicians such as Kai Hansen (Helloween), Alex Holzwarth (Rhapsody / session drummer for Angra’s first album), Sascha Paeth (producer and Andre Matos’ partner on the Virgo project), Rafael Bittencourt (Angra), Luis Mariutti (Shaman, ex-Angra), Andre Bastos (Angra’s founding member), Andre “Zaza” Hernandes (guitarist from Andre Matos’solo band and early Angra times), Kiko Loureiro (ex-Angra and Megadeth), Felipe Machado (Viper), Yves Passarell (Capital Inicial, ex-Viper), among others.

Matos, who made a name for himself fronting Viper and then Angra, passed away on June 8th, 2019 due to a heart attack. Of all the bands Matos performed with, Angra is the one he is best known for, having recorded three albums and three EPs with the band between 1993 - 1998. Holy Land from 1996 is considered their international breakthrough record, although the band made a big mark in their homeland Brazil with their 1993 debut, Angels Cry.