On July the 18th and 19th, the Ibirapuera Auditorium, São Paulo’s cultural stronghold, will host the Brazilian main event on drumset. With ten editions and two CDs accomplished, the Batuka! Brasil International Drum Fest fits its role as a national culture and international interchange diffuser, by combining shows, workshops and performances of Brazilian and foreign artists.
From its first edition, the festival had already received some of the Brazilian music icons like the renowned Zimbo Trio, one of the most successful groups from the Bossa Nova era, the extraordinary Banda Mantiqueira Big Band and the drummer Daniel Baeder, who nowadays plays at the Cirque du Soleil. The Batuka! always enlightens these artist’s significance in constructing a Brazilian cultural biography.
Our guest performers from all over the world, reinforce the diversity always praised by the Brazilian people. Also worth of mention, the cultural interchange during the festival is an invaluable asset for music students and overall audience. Not only the presence of Brazilian artists strengthens the perception of our music but, the fact of having artists from other countries, promotes an exchanging of musical experiences among themselves and the public leading to a richer understanding of everyone’s musical background. All of this, along with the great music brought to the festival.
Among the drummers who already performed at the Batuka! Brasil, there are some of the most influential drummers of the world such as Jim Chapin, Dave Weckl, Dom Famularo, Marco Minneman, Sam Aliano, Jonathan Mover and Virgil Donati.
The National Drummers Contest is also a part of the festival’s program. It was created focused in revealing the new talents of the Brazilian drumset and has achieved a great success! Among some of these gifted drummers is Rafael Barata who now plays with Edu Lobo, one of the all time most important composers of the Brazilian music.
In the year 2009, the Batuka! Brasil will present the Brazilian drummers Daniel Oliveira and Vera Figueiredo – authors of the book Vera Cruz Island – Brazilian Rhythms for Drumset, recently released by the Hudson Music, which is based in Vera’s compositions and performances.
Also performing at the Batuka! will be Gabriel Martins, one of the winners of the National Drummers Contest, the Percussion group Tribores and drummers Zoro (Lenny Kravitz) and Clayton Cameron (Tony Benett).
For more information, please access: www.batukabrasil.com