Our Choro workshops with Mike Marshall and Choro Famoso have been hugely popular at Centrum. In 2011, we’re bringing the Choro workshop back April 14-17, 2011, with some exciting new artists, as well as some old friends.

This year we’re excited to welcome three new artist faculty for Choro: The Music of Brazil Before Bossa Nova, and all natives of Brazil. Dudu Maia, mandolin; Douglas Lora, 7-string guitar; and Jovino Santos Neto, accordion, piano and flute.

Returning faculty will be Andy Connell, clarinet; and Brian Rice, pandeiro & percussion. All are master teachers and outstanding performers who will show you first hand how much fun it is to play Choro.

This workshop sells out very quickly, so register online now before this premium experience sells out.

A virtuoso of the bandolim (Portuguese for “mandolin”), Dudu Maia served for five years as the bandolim professor of Brazil’s most respected Choro school, the Escola Brasileira de Choro Raphael Rabello in the nation’s capital, Brasília. Considered to be one of Brazil’s top bandolim players, Dudu brings to his work a lifetime of research and study of Brazil’s greatest musical traditions.

Dudu Maia is distinguished for his soulful style, his unique touch, and his mastery of the 10 stringed bandolim, an instrument that has two more strings than the standard bandolim, expanding it’s musical range and harmony.

Besides devoting himself to composing and playing, Dudu has developed his own methodology of teaching Choro and the Brazilian mandolin. His work also stands out successfully in other countries. The musician often travels through Latin America, United States, Canada and Europe, spreading his way of teaching music.

Douglas Lora was born in Washington DC, but at less than one year old moved with his family to Sao Paulo, where he lived until the age of 26. Transiting with the same versatility through the classical and popular universes, Douglas divides his time among performing, composing, teaching and producing. His compositions have been performed by major guitarists, singers and orchestras in USA and Brazil.

Douglas received his Masters Degree in Performance from the University of Miami, where he studeied with Rene Gonzalez at the University of Miami. While at the Miami Conservatory of Music, he rapidly began gaining exposure in the US. His Brasil Guitar Duo’s 2007-2008 schedule featured engagements with the Houston Symphony, as well as the Tucson Guitar Society, the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes College, New York Classical Guitar Society, Classical Guitar Society of Upstate New York and the Asociacion Nacional de Conciertos of Panama. Prior engagements include Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on the CAG/Winners Series, New York’s Downtown River to River Festival, and the Columbia University’s Miller Theatre (with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas), an evening of works by Cuban born composer Tania León at Symphony Space, Orange County (CA) Performing Arts Center and the Miami Guitar Festival.

Three-time Latin Grammy nominee Jovino Santos Neto, a master pianist, composer and arranger, is among the top Brazilian musicians working today. Currently based in Seattle, Washington, he has throughout his career been closely affiliated with the Brazilian master Hermeto Pascoal.  He was an integral part of Pascoal’s group from 1977 to1992, where he fine-tuned his artistry, performing around the world and co-producing several legendary records.

Jovino’s personal style is a creative blend of energetic grooves, deep harmonies, telepathic improvisation, lyrical melodies and great ensemble playing, always inspired and informed by the colorful richness of Brazilian music. His compositions include samba, choro, baião, xote, forró, marcha and many more styles, rooted in centuries-old musical tradition while pointing to new and adventurous harmonic languages.

Currently, Jovino leads his Seattle-based Quinteto and teaches piano and composition at Cornish College of the Arts. He can also be heard as a piano soloist, working with symphony orchestras, jazz big bands, chamber music groups, and in collaboration with musicians such as his mentor Hermeto Pascoal, Bill Frisell, Paquito d’Rivera, Airto Moreira, Claudio Roditi, David Sanchez, Joe Locke, Marco Granados and many more.

Andy Connell is an ethnomusicologist whose primary research is in Brazilian popular instrumental music, focusing on issues of identity and musical globalization. He has recent articles published in Music Cultures of Latin America: Global Effects, Past and Present (UCLA Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology) and Women and Music in America Since 1900 (Greenwood Press) and has given presentations at various national and international conferences including the Society for Ethnomusicology and the International Council of Traditional Music. His current scholarly activities include completing a book on Brazilian jazz.

As a performer, Dr. Connell plays saxophone and clarinet in ensembles ranging from jazz to classical chamber music to Brazilian chorinho. He studied jazz improvisation and arranging with Ray Brown, clarinet with Rosario Mazzeo, Janet Averett, and Fred Ormand, and saxophone with Don Sinta.

He has played with the Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Toledo (Ohio) Symphonies, and has appeared at the Monterey, Montreux–Detroit, and San Francisco jazz festivals, and the Spoleto Festival USA. In addition, Dr. Connell has performed with a wide range artists including Luciano Pavarotti, Dave Leibman, Lou Rawls, Mike Marshall, and Hermeto Pascoal, and has recorded for the Musical Heritage Society, Intrada, Adventure Music, Earthbeat! Traveler, and Acoustic Levitation labels.

At James Madison University, Dr. Connell teaches courses in American music, the history of jazz, world music, and coaches small jazz ensembles.

Brian Rice is a freelance percussionist with a B.M. in Percussion Performance and Ethnomusicology from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. A well-rounded musician, Brian is a highly acclaimed performer, educator and recording artist adept at numerous musical styles ranging from classical and jazz, to Latin, Afro-Cuban, and Brazilian, to contemporary and experimental music.

Brian’s study of the pandeiro began in 1986 when the Sao Paulo State University percussion ensemble visited Oberlin and percussionist/composer Carlos Stasi, then a student at SPSU, gave Brian a quick pandeiro lesson after the concert. Since then Brian’s obsession with the pandeiro has led him to study with Guello, Marcos Suzano, Airto, Claudio Bueno and Clarice Magalhaes, and his prowess on the instrument has led him to perform with numerous Brazilian artists including, Jovino Santos Neto, Paulo Sergio Santos, Danilo Brito, Dudu Maia and Jorge Alabe. It was studies with Marcos Suzano that inspired Brian to expand his use of the pandeiro outside the Brazilian music world and apply it to Balkan, Celtic, Middle Eastern, Spanish, and Cuban music with great effect.