Schubert Club Courtroom Concert: Alma Brasiliera

Minnesota-based musicians Cléa Galhano (recorder) and Joan Griffith (guitar and cavaquinho) perform a vibrant Brazilian repertoire, highlighting diverse musical styles shaped by African and Portuguese influences.

Brazilian recorder player Cléa Galhano is an internationally renowned performer of early, contemporary and Brazilian music.

Galhano has performed in the United States, Canada, South America and Europe as a chamber musician, collaborating with recorder player Marion Verbruggen, Jacques Ogg, Belladonna, Lanzelotte/Galhano Duo and  Kingsbery Ensemble. As a featured soloist, Galhano has worked with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Musical Offering and Lyra Baroque Orchestra.

Among other important music festivals, Ms. Galhano has performed at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Tage Alter Music Festival in Germany and at Wigmore Hall in London, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall in New York and Palazzo Santa Croce in Rome, always receiving acclaimed reviews. Ms. Galhano was featured in 2006 in the Second International Recorder Congress in Leiden, Holland in 2007 and 2013 at the International Recorder Conference in Montréal and in 2012 at the ARS International Conference, Portland, Oregon.

She gave her Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall debut in May 2010 and her second Weil Hall recital on December 2013 with the international Cuban guitarist Rene Izquierdo.

Galhano studied in Brazil at Faculdade Santa Marcelina, the Royal Conservatory (The Hague), and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, earning a LASPAU, Fulbright Scholarship and support from the Dutch government. As an advocate of recorder music and educational initiatives, she served for six years on the national board of the American Recorder Society, and is the Music Director of the Recorder Orchestra of the Midwest. Ms. Galhano recently received the prestigious 2013 McKnight fellowship award, MSAB Cultural collaborative and MSAB Arts Initiative.

Currently, she is a faculty member at Macalester College, Music Director of the Recorder Orchestra of the Midwest, and has being recently appointed Adjunct Lecturer in Music, Recorder at HPI, Jacobs School of Music, IU.

Ms. Galhano has recordings available on Dorian, Ten Thousand Lakes and Eldorado label and she is the recipient of the National Arts Associate of Sigma Alpha Iota.

Joan Griffith never met a string instrument she didn’t like. Growing up in Bellevue, Nebraska, she fell in love with the guitar while listening to Stan Getz and João Gilberto on their breakout Brazilian album. She immediately got her mother to purchase the record and, at age 14, proceeded to figure out how to play all the songs! “This is what I thought the guitar should sound like” she remembers.

Joan went to the Conservatory at the University of Kansas City because it was one of the few schools that offered a guitar major. While she was there, she met another string instrument, the acoustic bass, and a whole new world of music opened to her. From there, the electric bass was soon introduced and she and friends from the Conservatory formed a disco/rock cover band called Airhart. Also in Kansas City, she was a part of the influential Women’s Jazz Festival. Her love of jazz was a constant, and became an integral part of her early professional working years.

After a musical stint in Arkansas, touring the state with a flute player, she moved to the Twin Cities in 1987, becoming an active player in the jazz/jobbing scene. As one of the all-woman trio, Naima, Joan and her band mates made their mark in the mostly male jazz scene, garnering honors and rave reviews. Joan also became a part of the musical theater world where her ability to play both bass and guitar fit in nicely. The Children’s Theater, the Guthrie, Theater Mu, Park Square and Bloomington Civic Theater (now known as Artistry) all were glad to have her in the pit. She has also played frequently with the Minnesota Orchestra.

It was at the Children’s Theater that a mandolin part was included as a double with the guitar book. Never having played one before, she looked it over for a minute or two and promptly ripped off a few scales. The mandolin surrendered. She has since added the violin to her string resume. Joan has also followed her composer voice’s calling. This is where her first love, the music of Brazil, is her biggest influence. As one can hear on her recordings, the choros, the bossas, the baiãos and the sambas live deeply in her soul. A visiting friend, a Brazilian guitarist, said “Joan plays Brazilian music without an accent.” Passing on her love of music, Joan has taught at the University of St. Thomas and St. Catherine’s University among other schools. She is currently ensconsed at Macalester College. She is a roster artist with COMPAS and the Minnesota State Arts Board.