SambaFest 2014, Hartford, Connecticut; Trinity College, Consulate of Brazil

Eighth Annual Samba Fest at Hartford Riverfront

Saturday, May 3

Hartford, Conn. (April 1, 2014) – Brazilian and Connecticut artists join forces with Trinity College students at the eighth annual Samba Fest on Saturday, May 3, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., at Mortensen Riverfront Plaza, 300 Columbus Boulevard. Admission is free. Rain or shine, the show will go on.

The family-friendly event begins with craft-making activities for children and families. Those who make a drum on-site or bring one from home are invited to participate in the opening parade at noon.

The Brazilian composer, arranger, and guitarist Ivan Vilela will make his American debut at Samba Fest. A specialist in playing the viola caipira, an acoustic guitar with ten steel strings used in Brazilian folk music, Vilela has recorded more than 15 albums and is currently a professor at the University of São Paulo in the School of Communication and Arts.

Samba Fest features the Trinity Samba Ensemble, directed by Eric Galm. The group is formed in an academic course in which students learn Brazilian culture through its music and rhythms. The Samba Ensemble repertory derives from the batucada, a drumming group that plays samba music during Brazil’s carnival celebrations. They perform participatory call-and-response songs in Portuguese and English. The group plays percussion instruments such as the surdo (similar to a bass drum); tamborim (small frame drum); agogô (double-bell); and ganzá (shaker). The group takes musical cues from the repinique, the “master drum,” supported by guitar, bass, and other instruments, which add harmonic layers to the multi-part vocals and rhythms.  

Throughout the afternoon, New Haven’s Ginga Brasileira, directed by Efraim Silva, will demonstrate the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira and the “stick dance” called maculelê, which originated with enslaved Africans working on Brazilian sugar plantations. They will also give a group lesson in samba dance.

Other performers include the Hartford Steel Symphony, co-directed by Curtis Greenidge and Kelvin Griffith, and the Trinity Steel Band, led by Curtis Greenidge.

Eric Galm, who conceived and produces Samba Fest, is Associate Professor of Music and Ethnomusicology at Trinity College, where he directs the Samba Ensemble and is the coordinator for the music track of the Trinity in Trinidad Global Learning Site. From 2006 to 2010, he served as president of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Northeast Chapter. He has lived, studied and traveled extensively throughout Brazil, and has conducted research in Cuba and Trinidad. He holds degrees in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan and Tufts universities, percussion performance from the University of Michigan, and performance certificates from the Escola Brasileira de Música and the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. 

Produced by Trinity College in in partnership with Riverfront Recapture, Samba Fest is sponsored by the Consulate General of Brazil in Hartford, The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation, Trinity College (Austin Arts Guest Artist Series, Music Department, Office of Multicultural Affairs; Center for Urban and Global Studies Arts Initiative, Trinfo Café, and Dean of Students), Greater Hartford Arts Council, and West Hartford Cultural Council for educational performances in that town’s elementary schools.

The Trinity Samba Fest is free and open to the public. For directions and parking information, visit sambafest.com. For general information, call 860-297-2199.

Samba Fest can be heard live on WRTC 98.3 FM radio.

Founded in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1823, Trinity College (www.trincoll.edu) is an independent, nonsectarian liberal arts college with over 2,200 students from 48 states and 57 countries. The faculty and alumni include recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur award, Guggenheims, Rockefellers, and other national academic awards. Trinity students integrate meaningful academic and leadership experience at all levels on the College’s celebrated campus, in the Capital City of Hartford, and in communities all over the world.

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