Siskiyou Music Project and the Britt Festival Education Department present Trio Brasileiro and saxophonist/clarinetist Anat Cohen for an evening of Brazilian Choro music at the RCC Black Box Theatre in Medford.
The Trio will also conduct an afternoon Choro Workshop at RCC. The workshop will be free to RCC and SOU music students and is made possible by the Britt Festival Education Department.
Formed in 2011, Trio Brasileiro has already made a name for itself as an ensemble worthy of international attention. Their stunning virtuosity is matched with remarkable musicianship and a deep devotion to the language of music, allowing them to achieve a one-of-a-kind sound that shares equal parts understated subtlety and irresistible groove. But it is their love of the traditional music of Brazil and the connection between brothers – by birth and by bonds of friendship – that create a very rare and profound beauty.
Half of the highly regarded Brazilian Choro and Samba ensemble, Caraivana Trio Brasileiro includes the celebrated guitarist and full-time member of the award-winning Brasil Guitar Duo, Douglas Lora; one of Brazil’s finest mandolin virtuosos, Dudu Maia; and the amazing percussionist, Alexandre Lora.
Their first U.S. tour in 2012 met with overwhelming success, with sold-out performances and standing ovations all along the route. The Trio has continued to tour annually, performing for eager audiences everywhere it appears. In addition to its numerous concerts in Brasília and São Paolo, Trio Brasileiro has made concert stops in New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Bloomington, Louisville, Lexington, Cedar Rapids, Seattle, and Portland, in addition to its annual residency at the Centrum Choro Workshop in Port Townsend, Washington.
In 2013, Trio Brasileiro collaborated with the celebrated Israeli clarinetist Anat Cohen, recording a brilliant new CD which was released in 2014. Cohen joined the Trio on several North American tour stops, including Seattle, Portland, and New York. Trio Brasileiro is dedicated to performing the great traditional Choro music of Brasil by Jacob do Bandolim, Ernesto Nazareth and others, as well as their own compositions, which are modern reflections of the genre.
Clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds the world over with her expressive virtuosity and delightful stage presence. Reviewing one of Anat’s headlining sets with her quartet at the North Sea Jazz Festival, DownBeat said: “Cohen not only proved to be a woodwind revelation of dark tones and delicious lyricism, but also a dynamic bandleader who danced and shouted out encouragement to her group – whooping it up when pianist Jason Lindner followed her clarinet trills on a Latin-flavored number. . . With her dark, curly, shoulder-length hair swaying to the beat as she danced, she was a picture of joy.”
The Jazz Journalists Association has voted Anat Clarinetist of the Year eight years in a row, and she has topped both the Critics and Readers Polls in the clarinet category in DownBeat magazine every year since 2011. That’s not to mention years of being named Rising Star in the soprano and tenor saxophone categories in DownBeat, as well as for Jazz Artist of the Year. In 2009, ASCAP awarded Anat a Wall of Fame prize for composition and musicianship, among other honors. Earning this acclaim, Anat has toured the world with her quartet, headlining at the Newport, Umbria, SF Jazz, and North Sea jazz festivals as well as at such hallowed clubs as New York’s Village Vanguard and at Columbia University’s prestigious Miller Theatre. In March 2015, Anzic Records released Luminosa, her seventh album as a bandleader.
