Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Brazilian musicians to showcase different styles of music from their country

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Two Brazilian musicians who play different instruments and represent two distinct regional musical styles will perform together for the first time on the University of Illinois campus.

Percussionist Don Pandeiro (the stage name for José Don Alves) and Di Freitas (the stage name for Francisco Ferreira de Freitas Filho), who plays string instruments, will perform at 7 p.m. Oct. 6 in the Knight Auditorium at Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana. The concert, hosted by the Center for Advanced Study, is free and open to the public.

Don Pandeiro, who is from Sao Paulo in southeastern Brazil, plays an instrument of the same name: The pandeiro is a Brazilian version of a tambourine. Don Pandeiro plays samba music, the most recognizable style of Brazilian music and a symbol of national identity. But Don Pandeiro identifies himself more by the instrument he plays rather than by a particular style of music, said Marc Hertzman, a history professor who studies Brazil and Latin America and has written a book on samba, Brazilian national culture and the country’s black musicians.

Hertzman, who has known Don Pandeiro for 15 years and helped organize the concert, praised his creativity and inventiveness.

“He can play traditional hits, but he does so many amazing things with compositions and riffing,” Hertzman said.

Di Freitas is a Brazilian musician who plays the fiddle, guitar and lute. He makes all the instruments he plays from calabash gourds and other local or found materials.

Di Freitas plays the fiddle, guitar and lute. He grew up in a coastal city in northeastern Brazil, and his interest in music was fostered by his father, a merchant mariner who brought home records for his son. Di Freitas studied classical cello, then began working with a youth orchestra, teaching them traditional music from northeastern Brazil that they played on fiddles, fifes and percussion instruments. The fiddle music is a regional music inspired by the rural culture, and the fife music is traditional music that can be traced to the Middle Ages and Portugal, said Michael Silvers, a musicology professor who studies the musical cultures of northeastern Brazil.

Silvers, a co-organizer of the concert, has known Di Freitas since 2008 and arranged for him to come to Illinois.

Each musician will perform some pieces of music individually and they will also play together. They’ll be accompanied on piano by Marcelo Kuyumjian, a graduate student in music.

“I think it will be really interesting to see where they meet up when they play together,” Hertzman said. “They really get to showcase themselves individually, then see what happens when these two really creative guys get together.”

The two will be on campus for a week-long residency, and they are scheduled to visit music classes and a local elementary school, conduct music workshops and a master class, and conduct an instrument-making workshop at Allen Hall. They’ll have opportunities to play together during the week prior to their concert, Silvers said.

“I expect there to be a certain amount of synergy because I suspect they share some ideas about music-making, even though the types of music they play aren’t the same,” Silvers said.

Both men are artists as well as musicians. Don Pandeiro makes musical instruments, as well as sculptures from matchsticks. He created a peace monument using 80,000 matchsticks. Di Freitas makes sculptures and all his instruments – fiddles, guitars, lutes – from calabash gourds. The children in the youth orchestra he directs couldn’t afford instruments, so Di Freitas taught them to make instruments from calabash.

“He has cellos he’s made out of long, interestingly shaped calabash,” Silvers said. “Each one is also a work of visual art. They are really beautiful.”

The Oct. 6 concert, “Northeast by Southeast: A Night of Brazilian Regional Music,” is the culmination of a series of events in an initiative examining how communications and technology have affected exchanges between musical cultures.

Editor’s notes: To reach Marc Hertzman, email hertzman@illinois.edu. To reach Michael Silvers, email msilvers@illinois.edu.

Read Next

Life sciences Portrait of the research team posing together.

Minecraft players can now explore whole cells and their contents

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have translated nanoscale experimental and computational data into precise 3D representations of bacteria, yeast and human epithelial, breast and breast cancer cells in Minecraft, a video game that allows players to explore, build and manipulate structures in three dimensions. The innovation will allow researchers and students of all ages to navigate […]

Arts Photo of seven dancers onstage wearing blue tops and orange or yellow flowing skirts. The backdrop is a Persian design.

February Dance includes works experimenting with live music, technology and a ‘sneaker ballet’

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The dance department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will present February Dance 2025: Fast Forward this week at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. February Dance will be one of the first performances in the newly renovated Colwell Playhouse Theatre since its reopening. The performances are Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Dance professor […]

Honors portraits of four Illinois researchers

Four Illinois researchers receive Presidential Early Career Award

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Four researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. The winners this year are health and kinesiology professor Marni Boppart, physics professor Barry Bradlyn, chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Ying […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010