Creative Alliance will be filled with the sounds of samba, bossa nova, and choro when musical duo Alma Brazil perform there Saturday, June 24.
The Brazilian duo comprises Iuri Bittar on guitar and Almir Côrtes on mandolin and bandolim, a Portuguese variant of the mandolin family.
Both natives of Brazil, Bittar and Côrtes will delight audiences with improvisation and swing, performing music composed by the country’s foremost writers, including Pixinguinha, Jacob do Bandolim, Baden Powell, and Tom Jobim.
Bittar is himself a composer, music producer, and teacher, and he has played guitar for 20 years, specializing in the Brazilian genres of choro and samba. His master’s thesis about guitarist Jayme Florence was considered a pioneering work, establishing him as an important reference in the historical and musicological study of Brazilian guitar.
He released his first solo guitar album, “Alma Brasileira,” in 2022, featuring previously unpublished arrangements of music by Ernesto Nazareth and Radamés Gnattali.
Côrtes plays several instruments, including mandolin; acoustic and electric guitars; a Brazilian ten-string guitar called the Viola Caipira; and the rare Bahian guitar, which is a solid-body electric mandolin with either four or five strings.
His wide variety of musical styles include choro, frevo, samba, baiao, bossa nova, and Brazilian jazz. Like Bittar, Côrtez is a musical academic, holding a bachelor’s of arts degree in classical guitar and masters and doctorate degrees in popular music performance. He has a lengthy teaching resume in the United States, including as a visiting artist scholar at the Jazz Studies Department at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music; the College of Liberal & Creative Arts at San Francisco State University; and the Latin Music and Culture Celebration, organized by Berklee College of Music.
Côrtes is releasing his sixth CD, “Três Baías” (Three Bays), a choro trio with Nando Duarte on 7-string guitar and Brian Rice on pandeiro.
Alma Brazil are often invited for concerts and workshops within and beyond Brazil. This performance is a co-presentation by EducArte and Creative Alliance.
EducArte is a non-profit organization whose goal is to build a “vibrant cultural arts community through educational programs that engage and bring together artists, students, and audiences in music, dance and visual arts.” The organization aims to foster cross-cultural communication through its workshops, masterclasses, and community events like the one at Creative Alliance with Alma Brazil.
The concert takes place at Creative Alliance in The Theater on Saturday, June 24, at 8 pm. Tickets are $25 for the general public, $22 for members, and $12 to stream the concert virtually.
