Early Music America Spring 2008 27

WW HEN MARÍLIA VARGAS was 17, shetook a 21-hour bus trip from her

home city of Curitiba, in the southernBrazilian state of Paraná, to Juiz de Fora,540 miles to the northeast. The Interna-tional Festival of Brazilian ColonialMusic and Early Music she attended wasthe young soprano’s first early musicimmersion experience. She spent twoweeks singing everything from Mon-teverdi to Couperin. “My mind wastotally changed. It was the madrigalteacher” – the Brazilian Homero Ribeirode Magalhães Filho, living in Paris –“who told me, ‘Child, you should studyearly music in Europe.’” Her mind wasmade up before she got home, and 18months later, Vargas was enrolled at theSchola Cantorum in Basel.

The Juiz de Fora festival’s dualemphasis – on early music as a wholeand on Brazilian early music specifically– reflects a particularly South Americanrelationship to early music. Under thePortuguese colonial court, European-style Baroque music-making and compo-sition flourished. The country’s modern-day early music revival, however, hasadvanced more slowly than in countrieswith a wealthier arts infrastructure. Forseveral years, Vargas assumed she wouldhave to stay in Europe to have the careershe wanted.

But after she completed her master’sdegree, personal matters drew her sightshomeward. Vargas looked harder andsaw that there were ensembles, conduc-tors, and directors to be found who wereworking at the same level she’d knownabroad. “Most importantly, I distin-guished what is really special and differ-ent about musical life in Brazil: the joypeople experience when they makemusic – their vigor, their thrill and

enthusiasm.” Since 2005, she has main-tained a home in both Switzerland andSão Paulo.

Vargas’s colleagues, both at home andabroad, seem to agree with her charac-terization of their nation’s musical spirit.I asked seven Brazilian musicians whatmakes their musical culture unique.Charleston-based countertenor JoséLemos, who performs with the Balti-more Consort and in operatic produc-

tions across Europe and the U.S., gave atypical response: “We have a tendency tobe a little bit more casual but at the sametime more passionate in our delivery – toperform with more spontaneity andalmost an improvising element to it.”These days, Lemos’s only regular musicalconnection with his homeland comeswhen he meets fellow Brazilian perform-ers in Europe – but he still declaresBrazil, without reservation, “the mostmusical country in the world!”

Flutist Laura Rónai elaborates.“Brazilians are generally less stressedthan Americans, less competitive, lessbothered if a note fails or if there is atechnical flaw, more able to improvise –in life and in music alike – and moreaware of the undercurrent of passionwhich is the true stuff music is made of.This is a strength and a defect at thesame time, but being a Brazilian myself, Itend to favor this more passion/lessrigor stance. It always melts my heartwhen I see someone who has everythingworking against him or her surmount alldifficulties and play beautifully.”

“It’s a tropical country,” Cléa Galhanoemphasizes. Living in Minnesota since1992, Galhano teaches at MacalesterCollege, is executive artistic director ofthe St. Paul Conservatory of Music, andenjoys a performing career as a recorder

Música Antiga: Spotlight on Brazil

The characteristic brio of the Brazilian lifestyle carries over into the way early music is presented and performed

By Shulamit Kleinerman

Since so many Brazilians are drawn to seek their careersin other countries,

Brazil’s contribution to early music can

be measured worldwide.

soloist and chamber musician. She is afounding member of the BelladonnaBaroque Quartet, which has performedseveral times in Brazil. “Every time, theother players say, ‘It’s so much fun!’ For-eign musicians always talk about howenthusiastic the audience is, the way theystand and clap. It has to do with the culture. Here in Minnesota, people arequieter.”

AnimaEarly music has a whole other life in

the post-colonial tropics. Perhaps nogroup is exploring this meeting ofworlds more boldly than the ensembleAnima. Now in its 15th year, Animabegan when Valeria Bittar returnedhome after seven years of study inEurope.

“I was looking for a way to performearly music with the recorder in Brazil.The first feeling I had was that I neededto know Brazil and Brazilian music bet-ter.” She joined forces with a harpsi-chordist friend, Patricia Gatti, andfounded Anima as an ensemble forMedieval and Renaissance music. Brazilhas a significant repertoire of Baroquemusic composed during the colonial era,but Bittar was looking for somethingelse. “The initial need to reach an intima-cy with the Brazilian ‘ancient’ music ledus to other musical paths, until we werefaced with Brazilian instruments whosetimbres brought us an ancient history – ahistory older than Brazil itself.”

The traditional instruments Bittarbegan coming to terms with were theBrazilian fiddle and 10-string guitar,along with their repertoire – “music thatwas not notated, ancient music that isstill alive in contemporary Brazilian ‘tra-ditional’ societies of unlettered commu-nities, far from mechanical thinking andindustrialization, where a chronologicaltime line does not exist.” In some oftheir publicity, Anima refers to suchplaces as “islands of medievality.” Themusicians trace the ancestry of theBrazilian rabeca and the improvisedsinging styles of the country’s cantadoresback to the Middle Ages.

“The absence of the need for nota-tion in Medieval culture and in tradition-al societies led Anima’s musicians, in thebeginning of the ’90s, to think that both

societies gave importance to themoment of performance rather than tothe score itself. We started to createarrangements collectively.” Another co-founder, fiddle player José Eduardo Gra-mani, who died in 1998, started to com-pose new pieces, “and Anima arranged,or ‘dis-arranged,’ them.”

Anima treats Medieval and Renais-sance compositions as traces of oral tra-dition in a musical landscape of Brazilianfolk music. Their most recent CD,Espelho (2006), features the 14th-centuryvirelai “Stella Splendens in Monte,” thecantiga “Rosa das Rosas,” the florid14th-century dance “Chominciamentoda Gioia,” the Comtesse de Dia’s “AChantar,” and a 17th-century Portuguesevillancico, in the midst of a dozenBrazilian traditional songs. There’s evena piece of Gregorian chant delivered likea tribal cry.

Bittar says that Anima has nevershared “the goal of the ‘official’ earlymusic market, which sells the illusion ofdoing early music as it was done at thattime. We would sink if we thought thathistorical research would be our lastobjective as interpreters.”

“The most exciting thing about work-ing in Brazil,” adds Anima’s present fid-dle player, Luiz Fiaminghi, “is exactly thepossibility of reinventing the past. Weconsider the term ‘early music’ broaderthan the concept of restoring theEuropean pre-Classical musical practicesdocumented in libraries. As thesemiologist Paul Zumthor says, tointerpret Medieval poetry, the readershould make a theatricalization of the past.This could be one of the ways thatAnima thinks of doing ancient music.”The ensemble draws inspiration fromcultural theory and contemporarytheater; while Fiaminghi pursues hisdoctorate at the University of Campinasin the history and music of Brazilianfiddles, Bittar is earning hers in theaterarts.

The members of the ensemble han-dle much of their own administrativework. Guitarist Ricardo Matsuda isrecording and mixing director and con-tributes original compositions, while Bit-tar and Fiaminghi deal with production,graphic design, legal issues, repertoireresearch, and tour management. The

“I distinguish what is really special and

different about musical life in Brazil: the joy peopleexperience when they

make music – their vigor, their thrill and enthusiasm.”

– Marília Vargas

“Brazilians are generally less stressed than Americans,

less competitive, less botheredif a note fails or if there is a technical flaw, more able

to improvise – in life and in music alike.”

– Laura Rónai

Early Music America Spring 2008 29

ensemble often rehearses as much as fivedays a week, and their most intensivetour, for the recording Amares in 2005,involved 60 concerts in 73 days. Theymade their U.S. debut in 2000 and werefeatured on NPR’s All Things Considered.

Fiaminghi insists that the array ofadministrative tasks doesn’t detract fromthe musicians’ artistic development. “Onthe contrary, it obliges us to develop alarge and increasing view of the actionof making music: as a whole manner ofcommunicating with people.”

In BrazilIn her book about the history of

20th-century early music performance inBrazil (Um Olhar sobre a Música Antiga: 50anos de História no Brasil, 1999), KristinaAugustin traces the movement’s originsback to 1949, with the founding ofBrazil’s first professional early musicensemble by a Bulgarian immigrant.Augustin’s own career, as well as those ofothers living and working in Brazil, helpsfill in the picture of early music’s subse-quent development.

By the time Augustin was a teenager,the recorder was extremely well-estab-lished in Brazil – she’d been playing itsince the age of six – but early stringswere much less visible. Augustin heard aJordi Savall LP and taught herself trebleviol from a book. She went on to studyin Switzerland with Paolo Pandolfo andin England with Sarah Cunningham.Today she teaches viol at the FluminenseFederal University, as well as music his-tory in the university’s extension pro-gram, and performs across the countryas a soloist, in a duo with gambist MarioOrlando, and in their quartet QuadroAntiquo.

In a country whose early music cul-ture is still establishing itself, “Every-thing that we play is new; we have freedom to create.”

But such freedom is limited by exter-nal pressures. “Although the quality ofthe professionals is getting better nowa-days, the spaces for concerts are becom-ing less available, and the festivals, too.The producers and sponsors focus onlarge concerts with symphonic orches-tras and chorus.” She misses the “idealmovement of the ’80s,” before some ofthe festivals went on a long hiatus, from

which they are only recently returning. In a country where travel can be com-

plicated, she also laments the difficultyof establishing collaboration betweengeographically distant colleagues. Brazilhas large early music centers in Rio deJaneiro and São Paulo, plus others insuch places as Minas Gerais, all of whichare somewhat independent. “It is noteasy to work with early music in a coun-try with many social and cultural diversi-ties,” Augustin notes. “We have individ-ual actions, not a movement.”

American flutist and scholar Tom

Moore took part in Brazil’s early music“actions” from his first visit to the coun-try, in 1998, as a tourist. Moore had dis-covered an online Brazilian CD storewhose listings included performer-pro-duced early music recordings, and heincluded these in the lists of new record-ings he presented in EMAg’s predeces-sor, Historical Performance. The websiteoperator’s wife, harpsichordist RosanaLanzelotte, invited Moore to play a con-cert with her – along with KristinaAugustin and Laura Rónai – while hewas in the country.

Brazilian Baroque

James Middleton is a specialist in the art and culture of theSouth American Baroque. As founder and artistic director of theTwin Cities-based opera ensemble Ex Machina (1986-1997), heproduced the U.S. premieres of several early New World operas.Now working in the New York area, he is currently co-produc-ing “A Fiesta of Mexican Baroque Music” with The Church of St. Luke in the Fields and Polyhymnia. Middleton writes:

Unlike the Spanish New World, where already-urbanized nativepopulations fostered the development of homegrown colonialidioms in both the visual and musical arts, Brazil had an indige-nous craft tradition that made little sense to the Portuguesecolonists. For a while, this lack of understanding inhibited thegrowth of a mestizo Baroque style in Brazil comparable to thoseof Mexico and Peru.

When such a style finally developed in the later 18th century in Minas Gerais, it was largelythanks to the imported populations of black and mulatto slaves and freedpersons who workedin the fabulously wealthy diamond and gold mines of the district. (Often avoided in NorthAmerica, the term “mulatto” is embraced in many languages and cultures originating in SouthAmerica, Africa, and the Caribbean.) Some of the slaves were able to purchase their freedom.With the traditionally less stringent Iberian attitudes towards liberty and intermar-riage/interbreeding, they managed to do better for themselves than the slaves of BritishAmerica. They sponsored religious confraternities that in turn produced lavish festivities for everyconceivable event in the liturgical year.

The two most famous exponents of the Brazilian Baroque were both freeborn mulattos,though only one was in fact an artist of the Baroque era. The sculptor Antônio Francisco Lisboa(1730 or 38 -1814) was known as “Aleijadinho” (“Little Cripple”) for the disfiguring leprosy thatgradually cost him his fingers but not—interestingly—his skill as a sculptor. Flourishing in theMinas district in the mid-to-late 18th century, he produced works in a vigorous though slightlyretardataire version of Portugal’s own Baroque style, which was already somewhat behind thetimes in Europe. His work is pretty clumsy—but amazing, considering that his chisel wasstrapped to the stumps of his hands. In Brazil he is recognized as a folk hero.

His musical counterpart is José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767-1830). Though an approximatecontemporary of Beethoven and Schubert, Nunes Garcia is nevertheless claimed as a (or the)composer of the Brazilian Baroque. A mulatto priest, keyboardist, and prolific composer, heworked in Rio and had the good fortune to be made mestre de capela when the Portuguesecourt, fleeing Napoleon, descended on Brazil in 1808.

My own favorite Brazilian Baroque musical work—because it is just totally over the top—isthe Missa e Credo for Eight Voices of Padre João de Deus de Castro Lobo (1794-1832), whichreminds me of Spontini in his more frivolous moments. The music is hilarious and much moreinteresting than the formulaic work of Nunes Garcia.

If you Google “Teatro Municipal Ouro Preto,” you can get to the site of the 1770 Casa daÓpera in Vila Rica, the third oldest theater in the Americas, built during the district’s great mining heyday. Late-model Italian operas were presented in this hinterland by companies ofblack and mulatto performers. The works of Niccolò Jommelli were particularly popular. There was a mulatto prima donna in the late 18th century who actually went to Portugal and had a career in opera.

Nunes Garcia

30 Spring 2008 Early Music America

Moore visited again the followingyear to do research on 19th-centuryBrazilian music and served as a visitingprofessor in the graduate music programat the University of Rio from 2005-2006.He is now back in the states as musiclibrarian, professor, and collegium direc-tor at Duke University.

Moore agrees with Augustin’s descrip-tion of the funding situation: “Classicalmusic in general is more dependent ongovernment and corporate funding thanin the U.S.A. These sources tend to bemore conservative, and from their pointof view, early music is innovative.”

He compares other types of institu-tional support with what is available inthe United States. “The Brazilian univer-sity system is considerably smaller, sothat the nurturing of early music in col-legia, et cetera, was much less common.Only now is early music really gaining aprominent place in university musicdepartments. Brazil also has a relatively

weak choral tradition, so that institutionslike the Handel and Haydn Society inBoston, with a centuries-long traditionof performing oratorios, have no ana-logues in Brazil. Although Brazilians aregreat singers, they are not used tosinging in ensembles, and groups per-forming Renaissance polyphony are rare.There is also much work to be done withearly strings, both with the violin and theviola da gamba families. I hope that earlymusic will continue to grow.”

Moore describes how Brazil’s econo-my initially slowed the growth of theearly music field: “It was much more dif-ficult, due to import duties and tariffs, toimport musical instruments – particular-ly large instruments, like harpsichords –and printed music. And the size of theinternal market meant that it was diffi-cult for Brazilian instrument builders tosurvive selling only to Brazilians. Com-pare the success of American makers ofperiod instruments from the 1950s

“The absence of the need for notation in Medieval culture and

in traditional societies ledAnima’S musicians to think

that both societies gave importance to the moment of performance

rather than to the score itself.” – Valeria Bittar

VVaalleerriiaa BBiittttaarr ((cceenntteerr)) aanndd tthhee mmeemmbbeerrss ooff AAnniimmaa..

Early Music America Spring 2008 31

onwards.”Today, notes Moore, “It is much easi-

er, thanks to the internet, to have accessto scores and musicological informationthan it used to be, so Brazil will have aneasier time keeping up with develop-ments outside.” As in many countriesworldwide whose older media resourceswere less extensive, Brazilians have insome ways taken more creative advan-tage of the new technology than Ameri-cans. Augustin, Rónai, Vargas, andGrupo Anima can all be seen and heardon YouTube.

After Moore’s first Brazilian concert,the foursome joined with Cléa Galhanofor a fringe concert at the Boston EarlyMusic Festival, and Moore invited LauraRónai to play and record with his NewJersey ensemble Le Triomphe del’Amour. Rónai had previously studiedfor six years in New York and maintainsrelationships with numerous Americanfriends and colleagues – “and I have had two American boyfriends, so obvi-ously I have a very close connection tothe country.”

Rónai earned a master’s degree atHunter College, following undergraduatework at SUNY Purchase, where shestudied flute with Sandra Miller – “myidol, my mentor, my dear friend.” Shecalls American higher education “a sys-tem that works, one that I am grateful tohave been able to know from inside.Every time I visit an American institu-tion, I am amazed at the level of teach-ers and students alike, at the wealth ofthe libraries, the sheer investment in thephysical facilities, the access to culture ingeneral.”

But these days, Rónai is drawn to stayhome. “I find it increasingly hard to fit inthe American emotional surroundings,as well as to understand American politi-cal inclinations. Fear of terrorism, therise in traveling costs, and the cuts infunds for the arts and culture have alsomade traveling to the U.S. to play con-certs a complicated business, and so myvisits are becoming fewer and fewer.”

When I spoke with her, Rónai was inthe last stretch of a 74-concert tour ofBrazil, playing contemporary Brazilianmusic for Baroque instruments. In gen-eral, she plays “basically standard Euro-pean Baroque music, my favorite being

the French composers for flute. Brazil’svery rich repertoire of colonial music –what, in European terms, would becalled Classical or late-Baroque – isessentially choral music, or works fororchestra plus choir and soloist. Cham-ber music is a field that had almost nopresence in colonial Brazil.”

Rónai teaches at the University ofRio. She searches enthusiastically for ametaphor to describe the growth ofearly music performance in her home-land. “It is exciting to see a plant grow.Culturally, Brazil is still an infant, and itis fun to be a cog in the machine.” Sheisn’t sure, though, how optimistically toview the future. “The president has littleappreciation for culture or education. Hehas never had any formal training and is,unfortunately, unaware of the impor-tance of investing in education. This iscertainly not a good omen.”

She draws sustenance from Brazil’scultural warmth. “Brazilians tend to bevery informal and affectionate. Studentsor colleagues often hug a lot, are verydemonstrative of how they feel, willdrop by unexpectedly just to drink a cupof coffee, will be very present when oneis sad or forlorn. There is none of theAnglo-Saxon formality that makes someclear barriers in the States; it is harderthere to find students mixing sociallywith professors, for example. But it alsohas to do with a specific tradition. Brazil-ians in general are very connected totheir hometown. If I walk in Rio,” – acity with a metropolitan population ofclose to 12 million – “I will bump intopeople who were in kindergarten withme. If I go to a restaurant, I will seesomeone I know. We cherish old ties.Some of my closest friends are formerstudents. They display their affectionunashamedly, and I bask in affection likeother people bask in the sun.”

ExpatriatesSince so many Brazilians are drawn to

seek their careers in other countries,Brazil’s contribution to early music canbe measured worldwide. Two high-pro-file performers in the U.S. are Cléa Gal-hano and José Lemos.

Galhano studied in Holland in theearly ’80s. She was a “first-generation”student there of the Brazilian Ricardo

“Recorder is just one more instrument there, a real instrument. I was

invited a few years ago to arecorder festival in Minas,

and there were 200 players. I could not believe it.”

–Cléa Galhano

“Classical music is moredependent on government and corporate funding than in the U.S.A. These sources

tend to be more conservative,and from their point of view,

early music is innovative.”– Tom Moore

32 Spring 2008 Early Music America

Kanji, who had studied with FransBrüggen and who was an obvious choicefor Brazilian students going abroad.Returning to Brazil and teaching at thecollegiate level, Galhano needed a per-formance master’s degree and obtained aFulbright to attend the New EnglandConservatory. “I played all kinds ofmusic – I was always playing Brazilianmusic – so that was a perfect environ-ment for me.” She taught in Brazil forfour years and then moved to Minnesotain 1992 so that her husband, a jazz musi-cian she’d met at NEC, could start hisdoctorate in music education.

Galhano is fascinated by the Baroquepresence that lingers in parts of hercountry. In what she calls the “Baroquestate” of Minas Gerais, there is animportant organ from the 17th century,and costumed Holy Week plays are pre-sented opera-style, with small orchestras.“It’s part of the culture,” Galhano saysof the Baroque aesthetic. In state con-servatories, Brazilians can study for free,“and recorder is just one more instru-ment there, a real instrument. I wasinvited a few years ago to a recorder festival in Minas, and there were 200players. I could not believe it.”

Source materialPrimary musical source material from

the colonial era is still being discovered. Once when Galhano was touring the

southern part of Brazil, she met some-one whose cellist sister had found a“weird cello” on someone’s farm,bought it for a song, and took it to Eng-land, where she learned that it was a cen-turies-old bass violin. Galhano pointsout that a Dutch recorder on display atthe National Music Museum in SouthDakota is actually from Brazil, a relic ofthe Dutch colonial presence in theNorth.

Galhano also tells the story of a luteplayer from Paris who came to give a lec-ture on Medieval and Renaissance music,only to have someone from the audiencetell him that he could find relevant origi-nal documents in the local library. Like-wise, harpsichordist Edmundo Horawent to Amsterdam to study withJacques Ogg and became interested inhistorical temperament. Upon Hora’sreturn to Bahia, the parish priest offered

to let him look in the church’s closet,where he found a Baroque-era tempera-ment treatise. Hora now has an orches-tra, Armonico Tributo, that recordsBrazilian Baroque music in historic temperament.

“It’s unbelievable, the movement ofearly music in Brazil – even with the eco-nomic problems. These people haveguts; they just go for it.” Galhano sentsix of her own students to study withKanji, “and now they’re professionals allover the world.” One of her former stu-dents teaches at the university in SãoPaulo, where the students present anannual Baroque opera.

Farther from Brazil’s large cities anduniversities, however, it may still be hard-er to get wind of historical performanceopportunities. José Lemos started voicelessons at 14 with a Uruguayan teacherwho came to a border town three hoursfrom Lemos’s small Brazilian hometownof Bagé. Lemos studied as a tenor, but athome, the teenager was singing alongwith recordings of Joan Sutherland andMaria Callas. “It felt very natural for meto imitate their sound,” he explains.When, at 17, he was preparing for a stu-dent recital, “My voice was cracking andsounding tired, as it usually did in thosedays in that register. My coach asked meto sing softly, so I just started singingwith my home voice. He turned aroundand asked, ‘What are you doing?’ Thatwas the beginning.” Later, Lemos foundrecordings of Alfred Deller and JamesBowman.

Lemos supported himself for a yearof conservatory in Montevideo,Uruguay, and then he met Steve Rosen-berg, who was in the city to give a con-cert. Rosenberg is the director ofCharleston Pro Musica and musicdepartment chair at the College ofCharleston. “I asked Steve if there wasmaybe a possible scholarship for me tostudy there, and he asked me if I wouldbe interested in being part of his earlymusic group. A few months after he left,I received an invitation from the Collegeof Charleston to apply for the musicschool. Between him and the Uruguayanpianist Enrique Graf, who teaches there, I was able to attend on a fullscholarship.” Lemos went on to earn a

“Everything that we play is new; we have

freedom to create.” – Kristina Augustin

“We have a tendency to be a little bit more casual

but at the same time morepassionate in our delivery – to perform with more

spontaneity and almost animprovising element to it.”

– José LemosContinued on page 64

Early Music America Spring 2008 33

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Adam Knight Gilbert, director Ensemble direction, historical double reeds

Janet BeazleyBaroque fl ute

Elizabeth BlumenstockBaroque violin and viola

Lucinda CarverHarpsichord and continuo

Rotem GilbertRecorder, ensemble direction

Charles KosterBaroque bassoon

Mary Rawcliff eHistorical vocal technique

Paul ShermanBaroque oboe and ensemble direction

William SkeenBaroque cello and viola da gamba

Shanon ZusmanBaroque bass and viola da gamba

MUSICOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE PRACTICE

Bruce A. BrownAdam GilbertRotem Gilbert

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Early Music Performance

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Off ering MM and DMA in historical performance. Now accepting applications for Ph.D. in musicology with a focus on early music and performance.

Adam Knight Gilbert, director

master’s degree at the New EnglandConservatory and to perform on bothsides of the Atlantic – singing in Europeunder such directors as Nicholas McGe-gan, Marc Minkowski, and WilliamChristie. At home in the States, he wascalled by Boston Baroque one morningwith the request that he fill in for theirCesare in a performance of Handel’sopera to take place that night. “That wasa big boost,” he says.

“North American audiences are themost generous I have ever seen. Mostmusical series and institutions that havebeen around for a long time and thatsupport music and culture in general aresupported by private donations. I havenever found that in South America, andit doesn’t happen much in Europe.”

Lemos respects North Americanaudiences’ intellectual involvement atconcerts, and he also appreciates thedirectness of South Americans’ appreci-ation. “They might never read the notesor translations, but the majority of peo-ple will try and understand what is goingon musically from the performers’expression of it.

“If the U.S. found a way to supportAmerican and South American earlymusic artists going there to perform, itwould be a great contribution for theculture of that country and a fantasticexperience for the artists involved to beable to participate in such culturalexchange.”

New seedsCompleting the circle from her own

beginnings with early music, Marília Var-gas now teaches at Brazilian workshopsherself. “Working in Brazil gives me thesatisfaction of feeling needed, of givingsomething that is really fulfilling for thestudents,” she says. In Europe, shefound the early music scene so saturatedthat master classes with performers asrenowned as Monserrat Figueras wouldrun at less than 50 percent enrollment(“and that was lucky for me!”). In Brazil,students are still responding to earlymusic’s newness. “Sometimes I even feel

a bit engulfed from so much demand,the endless questions and needs fromthe students. They literally drink everydrop from what you have to offer.”

It is the same with audiences. “Sayinggoodbye to the public happens not onstage, but in the aisle or in the dressingroom, where the whole audience goes atthe end of the concert and is eager tohug, kiss, touch, and thank you. Thishumaneness fascinates me! And thanksto it, I have been coming more and moreoften to my own country.”

When I was in touch with her inNovember, Vargas had just finishedcoaching the student singers in a produc-tion of Monteverdi’s Ballo delle ingrate inthe Week of Early Music at the FederalUniversity of Minas Gerais. The univer-sity students had spent a semesterpreparing the work with Brazilianlutenist Silvana Scarinci, who also pre-sented the music of the composer Bar-bara Strozzi at the festival. Musicologistssharing their work in lectures and round

“The most exciting thing about working in Brazil

is exactly the possibility ofreinventing the past. We consider the term

‘early music’ broader than theconcept of restoring theEuropean pre-Classical

musical practices.”– Luiz Fiaminghi

64 Spring 2008 Early Music America

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Full roster and audio clips at: www.Jwentworth.com

Música Antiga: Spotlight on BrazilContinued from page 32

tables included NYU professor SuzanneCusick. Her work on Baroque music andgender offered a glimpse of the intellec-tual concerns that are current in Ameri-can humanities departments but have yetto develop in Brazil.

The Monteverdi production was con-ducted by Luís Otávio Santos and stagedby Brazilian director Carlos Harmuch,visiting from the Schola Cantorum.Instrumental students had the opportu-nity to play continuo with professionalspecialists. “There was a classical gui-tarist who now wishes to learn the lute.There was also a student playing Celticharp, who, for the first time, thinks of

studying arpa doppia, as well as singerswho had never had any contact with the parlar cantando and by the end of the week were totally in love with Monteverdi.

“The seed was planted in MinasGerais. And day after day we spread newseeds across the country. I feel extremelyhappy to be witnessing this fast develop-ment, and yes, I believe there is a beauti-ful future for early music in Brazil.” Shulamit Kleinerman plays Medieval andRenaissance music, writes and lectures aboutmusic history, and teaches historical arts work-shops for school age children in Seattle. Shecan be found online at shulamitk.net.

Early Music America Spring 2008 65

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SM6a - Captaine Hume’s Musicall Humors, 35pieces, arranged for tenor viol. Yes, the best-selling bass viol music is now available to tenorviol players. Great teaching material and fun.SM53 - Handel - Fugues and Sarabandes for 4viols (TrTrBB) Two keyboard fugues andsarabandes, arranged for four viols. These arechallenging pieces, suitable for concer tperformance. Score & partsSM54 - Duets for tenor viols , Vol. 4. A Renaissance& Baroque Miscellany. Charming pieces of varyingstandards to suit all tenor players. 2 scores

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Brazil’s Musical Diaspora

“Brazil has produced some absolutely excellent early music interpreters, in every single instru-ment. I could fill a page just with names,” reports Laura Rónai. “Unfortunately they tend to bespread all over the world.”

One of Brazil’s most famous early music performers is Ricardo Kanji. After earning a degreeat the Peabody Conservatory, Kanji studied flute and recorder with Frans Brüggen at The Hague,where he taught as Brüggen’s successor from 1973 to1995. Kanji was a founding member ofthe Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. Since his return to Brazil, he has focused largely onBrazilian colonial repertoire. Serving as artistic director for a television series on the history ofBrazilian music, Kanji has explored traces of African rhythm in the works of mixed-race colonial-era composers, recording a series of CDs with the Vox Brasiliensis chorus and orchestra.

Baroque violinist Luís Otávio Santos is equally influential. Santos’s parents own the conserva-tory in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, and as youngsters Santos and his brothers played in itsMedieval and Renaissance ensemble. A former student of Sigiswald Kuijken, Santos performs inLa Petite Bande and returns from Holland twice a year to serve as artistic director of the interna-tional early music festival in Juiz de Fora. In 2007, his work was recognized with an Order ofCultural Merit by Brazil’s Ministry of Culture.

Living in France, harpsichordist Nicolau de Figueiredo has performed with many of the bestknown ensembles in Europe. He returns to Brazil to perform as soloist and director with ensem-bles such as the Camerata Antiqua de Curitiba.

Performers who make a career within Brazil are too numerous to name. They include coun-tertenor Paulo Mestre, who appears on the most recent Juiz de Fora festival CD of colonial andEuropean Baroque works. Mestre performs with ensembles including Armonico Tributo inCampinas, Benedictus in Rio de Janeiro, Tábula in Brasilia, Calíope in Rio de Janeiro, and theOrquestra de Ouro Preto in Minas Gerais.

Gambist Mario Orlando earned an early music degree at Sarah Lawrence, followed by fur-ther study on the viol at France’s National Conservatory in Lyon. He teaches at the FluminenseFederal University and performs with Kristina Augustin.

Based in Campinas, Silvana Scarinci plays lute, theorbo, and Baroque guitar. She is thefounder of an ensemble specializing in the music of Baroque women composers, Anima Fortis,which has played at the early music festivals in Berkeley and Bloomington.

Harpsichordist Rosana Lanzelotte, who tours internationally and teaches at the university inRio, is also the founder of the series Music in Churches, which has been bringing free concertsto Rio neighborhoods since 1993. The series is so popular that early music programs attract afull house and have to be repeated.

In an earlier generation, Roberto de Regina was a driving force in Brazil’s mid-century histori-cal performance movement. After a sojourn in the U.S. to study harpsichord building with FrankHubbard and early music performance with members of the New York Pro Musica, Regina builtthe first 20th-century harpsichord in Brazil and has been popularizing the instrument in recitalsever since.