São Paulo Choro Quartet featuring Alessandro Penezzi & Alexandre Ribeiro

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Brazilian choro by São Paulo Allstars!! Alessandro Penezzi, guitar, Roberta Valente, pandeiro, and Alexandre Ribeiro, clarinet, with Jane Lenoir, Director of the Berkeley Choro Ensemble, on flute. These guests from Brazil represent the highest level of performance in the choro style in Brazil--all are soloists and performaners in the vibrant São Paulo scene, as well as all over the world. Please join us for a great evening of Brazilian music. Clarinetist and composer Alexandre Ribeiro has been called ‘one of the most brilliant Brazilian instrumentalists of the new generation’ by Brazilian music critic Carlos Calado. Alexandre has performed and recorded with such renowned Brazilian musicians as Guinga, Paulo Moura, Léa Freire, Dominguinhos, Yamandu Costa, Conjunto Epoca de Ouro and Danilo Brito. His own personal catalogue of recordings includes the 2005 “Homenagem a Altamiro Carrilho” with Grupo Ó do Borogodó, two albums with guitar virtuoso Alessandro Penezzi and a 2014 album with his own Alexandre Ribeiro Quartet. His most recent solo album, “De Pé na Proa” is a collection of nine of his original compositions that feature clarinet, bass clarinet and his experiments with electronic effects—loop pedals, harmonizers, etc. Brazilian pandeiro player, producer, teacher, and researcher Roberta Valente, with 35 years of experience, is one of the leading figures in the world of contemporary choro music. She has performed alongside major names in Brazilian music, such as Yamandu Costa, Hamilton de Holanda, Beth Carvalho, Martinho da Vila, Altamiro Carrilho, Monarco, Dona Yvone Lara, among many others. With tours throughout Brazil and abroad (Australia, India, New Zealand, USA, Europe and Latin America), extensive experience in radio and television, publishing projects (co-author of the books "Antologia Musical Popular Brasileira – As marchinhas de carnaval" and "Brasil Toca Choro" (TV Cultura – 50 years), she participated in the process of recognizing choro music as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Brazil with IPHAN (National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage). Considered one of the great Brazilian guitarists of his generation, composer, arranger and guitarist Alessandro Penezzi was born in Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil in February, 1974. He began his musical studies at seven years old. A multi-instrumentalist, Alessandro plays 7-string guitar, tenor guitar, cavaquinho, mandolin and flute. His teachers were Carlos Coimbra, Jair T. de Paula, Sérgio Belluco, and João Dias Carrasqueira. He has taught at California Brazil Camp since 2010 and is building a following in the US as one of the great virtuosos and composers in the Brazilian popular music genre. He resides in Piracicaba and São Paulo, Brazil. and tours regularly to Europe and Africa. He has recorded over 40 albums of music with Brazil’s most renowned musicians. He has just completed a US tour performing choro with mandolinist Mike Marshall. Jane Lenoir, flutist, is director of Berkeley Choro Ensemble and Co-Director of Berkeley Festival of Choro. An eclectic musician with performing styles ranging from classical music, jazz, latin and more, she has focused in recent years on Brazilian music. In 2018, Jane released two albums of Brazilian music: Jane Lenoir plays Penezzi , with the composer and 7-string guitarist Alessandro Penezzi, and The View from Here , with Berkeley Choro Ensemble, featuring the music of contemporary Brazilian composers. She has also recorded with Paulo Sergio Santos, Carlos Oliveira, Caio Marcio Santos, L é a Freire and more.