Maracatu New York

Musician and Project Director - 2003-2007

Maracatu New York is New York's first and only Maracatu ensemble dedicated to the performance and knowledge of traditional Maracatu de Baque Virado and other musical styles from the Northeast of Brazil. In 2005 Maracatu NY was the first and only United States Maracatu group to travel to Recife, Brazil where they studied with Corpos Percussivos and Jorge Martins and performed in Carnaval. As a musician, mainly an alfaia player and singer although the group is trained on all relevant instruments, my performances with the group ranged all over New York and the tri-state area, as well as, D.C. Notable shows included GlobalFest, a curated showcase of world music, and Celebrate Brooklyn, a popular summer concert venue.

As Project Director from 2005 - 2007, I developed and managed the project. Responsibilities included organization, management, booking, marketing, costume design, development of visual design of brand, creation of copy, social networking, website design and maintenance, general administration and budget.

I appear on cds for the following groups/artists: Maracatu NY, Frank London and Cyro Baptista.

Puppets for Maracatu New York - 2014 - present

In more recent years, I created puppets for and performed them with Maracatu New York for the NYC Village Halloween Parade. Lola, Skeleton Lola, the Skeleton King and the Skeleton Maracatu Princesses were all made to pay homage via puppetry to the beautiful vision of the the traditional maracatu courts in Recife, Brazil.

Videos: (left to right)

  • Maracatu New York street performance on Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I can be seen playing alfaia on the right.

  • Maracatu New York at the NYC Village Halloween Parade, 2005 - tshirts and banner designed and made by me, I can be seen playing alfaia while wearing a spider puppet costume of my making.

  • Maracatu New York at the NYC Village Halloween Parade, 2014 - Lola the Maracatu Queen puppet and the new Maracatu NY Banner make their debut

  • Maracatu New York at the NYC Village Halloween Parade, 2015 - Lola the Maracatu Queen dances again.

Photos: (left to right)

  • Maracatu New York at Celebrate Brooklyn