Mississippi State will host a Brazilian Festival that highlights the nation’s musical and cultural heritage.
The Music Education Department sponsored the first-of-a-kind event. The Office of Research also helped sponsor the event through a Humanities and Arts Research program grant from the office of research.
MSU assistant professor of piano and music theory Rosangela Y. Sebba, a native of Brazil, helped organize the event. She said she wants to expose Mississippi State students to her distinct culture.
“We want to introduce people to the melodies and rhythms of Brazilian music,” Sebba said.
Sebba described the music as dance-like and highly syncopated. She said the festival will include the melding of Portuguese, Native Indian and African influences that shape Brazil’s musical experience.
Guest artists will include Andrea Teixeira, from the School of Music in Brazil, and Ney Rosauro, a native Brazilian now directing percussion studies at the University of Miami.
Teixeira, a professor, musicologist/ethnomusicologist and music therapist, has received several national and international awards in piano competitions. Two German-based musical institutes inducted her in 2002 for contributions to folkloric research. She will start the festival with a lecture on Brazilian music at 2 p.m. on Wednesday in Bettersworth Auditorium in Giles Hall. At 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, also in Bettersworth Auditorium, Sebba will perform a contemporary four-hand Brazilian tango for piano.
Rosauro earned his doctorate in percussion from the University of Miami. Recognized as an original and dynamic symphonic percussionist and composer, his works have been recorded by Evelyn Glennie and the London Symphonic Orchestra. He will also give a master class at 11:00 a.m. in the campus band hall on Friday and a lecture on Brazilian instruments at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday in the Music Education Building B on Morril Road. Rosauro will finish up the week by performing a percussion recital with Damm and the MSU Percussion Ensemble along with Ward-Stewart music students of Cindy Melby at 7:30 p.m. in the Colvard Union Ballroom.
“We encourage all interested musicians and music loving residents to attend as many of the events as possible,” Sebba said. “We don’t think they will be disappointed.”
The Brazilian Music Festival will take place Wednesday, March 26, through Saturday, March 29, and will be free to the public.