Artist in Residence BiosLuciano Porto - Bavia Arts Director and Teacher
In 1992 Luciano moved to Toronto from Brasilia at the age of 16 and started to gain access to school band instruments brought home by his younger brother. After trying out various wind instruments he decided to study classical guitar and made his debut music performance with the University of Toronto Guitar Ensemble in 1995. Following his love of nature he studied Environmental Science, only to use up all his spare time playing and studying music on the side. For the past fifteen years he has been consistently studying privately and playing independently instruments such as his dad's old clarinet, tenor saxophone, guitar, bamboo flutes, North and West African percussion, Multiple Brazilian percussion instruments, drum kit and later congas and the accordion. Due to chronic wrist problems Luciano was forced to diversify all his efforts, and as a consequence developed an aptitude to practicing various different instruments and music forms simultaneously. His main passion, afro-percussion came to being after he first met African drummers during travels in British Columbia, then on a trip to Senegal and Morocco he started a life-long investigation of these passionate music traditions. Toronto, October 2002 Luciano discovered Aline Morale's workshops on Brazilian Maracatu drumming style and became an immediate addict, from 2002 to 2006 he performed extensively as part of the Maracatu Nunca Antes main and stage percussion troupe all over Southern Ontario, Quebec and beyond, during this period to present he also became a student of samba master Maninho Costa and performs with him to date in his group Batucada Carioca which included the Brazilian Ball 2006 and 2007. In 2006 Luciano Porto recorded his first solo Album named The Dance of the Chakras, by renowned producer Ron Alen an album dedicated to Barbara Sauvé`s workshop series on "chakra work", a mixture of experimental music with world fusion and new age. He also started a project called Mulambo Groove, to feature his own compositions (inspired by Afro-Brazilian traditions) accompanied by his three brothers. Mulambo Groove performs periodically at many cultural and community events in Toronto, including the Gladstone World in October 2007 and Brazil Fest September 2008. Presently, Luciano performs with several other bands in the GTA on a regular basis mostly as a drummer or percussionist, covering varied styles from rock/pop, oldies, blues, avant-guarde, to samba, bossa nova, Brazilian folk, Maracatu drumming and even Indian classical and Indian jazz beside master flautist Ron Allen; he has been in collaboration with various Ontario Artists such as Dave Clark, Lewis Melville, Gordon Sheard, Scott Thomson, Ron Allen, Rick Lazar, Peirson Ross, Nuno Cristo, Alexandra Nunes, Maninho Costa, Aline Morales, Alan Hendrickson, Nick Brownman Ali, Waleed Abdulhamid, Kobena Harrison among others. Luciano Porto also continues to research, study and teach music privately, of late he's working on a program with Eder Rocha's percussion school Prego Batido in Brazil that explores multiple facets of Afro-Brazilian percussive traditions. He teaches music for the city of Toronto at Trinity Bellwoods Community Recreation Centre and at Bavia Arts Studio his own community studio project. myspace.com/mulambogroove and myspace.com/lucianoporto Newton Moraes - Artist in Residence - The School of Newton Moraes Dance Theatre
Newton Moraes has received support from the Department of Foreign Affairs to tour Newton Moraes Dance Theatre to Porto Alegre and São Paulo in Brazil and created cultural exchanges with Gregorio Trejo Garcia of Ultimo Tren of Mexico City and the noted choreographer Fred Traguth from Germany. In 1997, he founded Newton Moraes Dance Theatre and he was invited by the District Institute of Culture and Tourism of Bogotá, Colombia to choreograph a contemporary dance piece. The work "Juegos de Amor / Love Games" was the result of his three months of work and was presented in the Teatro Municipal Jorge Eliecer Gaitan with a total audience of 3.500 in 4 performances. Moraes recently returned to Brazil were he and his company performed in 14 cities including Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. This tour was officially supported by the Foreign Affairs Canada, the Canadian Consulate in Sao Paulo, Canadian Embassy in Brasilia, Choreographic Centre of the city of Rio de Janeiro and City of Rio de Janeiro. Some of Newton's mentors include Jean Sasportes, Fred Traugth David Earle, Patricia Beatty, Danny Grossman, Patrick Parson (African Dance - Toronto), Marcelo do Nascimento and José do Nascimento (Brazil). Further studies were made in Releasing Technique with Stephanie Scura, Improvisation with Denise Fujiwara, Kurt Jooss Technique with Fred Traguth, and Afro-Brazilian Spiritual Dance with Pai Beto do Xangó Aganju. Now Newton Moraes is studying different music styles and instruments from Brazil with Luciano Porto and Samba with Maninho Costa of Batucada Carioca. Newton Moraes was a board member of Dance Ontario Association for more them six years and is a member of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists (C.A.D.A.). He teaches Brazilian Dance, and Choreography in the Faculty at the Ballet Creole school of Performing Arts in Toronto. Newton Moraes has also received the Ontario Arts Council Artist in Education Grant to teach in the schools across the Province of Ontario for the last three years and Travel Grants from Ontario Arts Council.
Newton Moraes has established great relationship with many schools in Ontario including: Saint Antoine Daniel Catholic School in Toronto, Sr. Flemming Academy in Toronto, Clause Watson School for the Arts in Toronto, Saint Francis Xavier Catholic School in Toronto, North Albion Collegiate in Toronto, Denis Catholic School in Toronto, Northview Heights SS in Toronto, Elkhorn School in Toronto, Fern Avenue School in Toronto, Saint Bonaventure Catholic School in Toronto, John Fraser Public School in Mississauga, John F. Ross Public School in Guelph, Winston Churchill Public School in Kingston. Maninho Costa - Artist in Residence - Batucada Carioca
Joelson David Costa, better known as Maninho Costa, was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and from the early age of 8 he learned to play all the drums in the baterias of the famous Rio Carnival. He started in a mini-bateria for kids as a social project from the samba school Uniao da Ilha do Governador. During this time he was already participating in many television programs, live shows and small concerts performing with a group of 20 children who are now adult professionals playing in different samba schools. At the age of 15 he began to play in the adult baterias and was invited to record with professional percussionists. Some of the many records he participated in recording were for Samba Schools of Rio de Janeiro (LP) playing repinique solo with all the samba schools for many years. He also participated on Sergio Mendes's - Brasileiro (track - Fanfarra) playing repinique solo among 100 samba percussionists hand-picked by Sergio Mendes from all of the samba schools in 1991. Having a strong understanding and ability to play all of the samba percussion instruments, Maninho has played with some of the largest and most famous samba schools such as Salgueiro, Tijuca, Beija-flor, Viradouro, Grande Rio (bateria lead by his uncle, Mestre Odilon Costa) and Uniao da Ilha do Governador. Maninho and Mestre Odilon began giving workshops for the Brazilian group Monobloco which has now become a very popular group that conducts workshops and performs numerous shows nationally and internationally.
In 2001 Maninho was invited to go to Canada with a stage band lead by Filo Machado, renowned Brazilian guitarist from Sao Paulo, to perform for a large annual fundraising gala called the Brazilian Carnival Ball. Based in Toronto, Maninho began to give samba percussion workshops. He formed his own samba group called Batucada Carioca which is made up of 20-25 people from all cultural backgrounds performing consistently. The group has performed in various festivals, clubs and other types of events in and around the city giving a taste of Brazilian culture to the multicultural Canadian community. In 2003 Batucada Carioca was the opening act for Daniella Mercury's concert in Toronto. In 2004 he performed with Brazilian piano maestro Jovino Santos Neto in conjunction with the Gryphon Trio and University of Toronto. In 2008 Maninho was invited to perform as part of the Art Of Jazz Orchestra, organized by Jane Bunnett, with Jovino and legendary Brazilian composer, instrumentalist and icon Hermeto Pascoal.
Aside from local work, Maninho has also conducted samba workshops and performances in the United States and Europe. Maninho's goal by conducting workshops is to teach students interested in learning about Brazilian music and culture by learning proper technique, repertoire and grooves in order to play samba in it's true tradition from the Rio carnival.
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A drummer, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Luciano was born and raised in the rural interior of Brazil where he experienced from a young age the richness of culture, music and nature abundant in the surroundings of Brazil's capital, Brasilia. Luciano's childhood was inspired by his father's accordion playing; who also composed several unpublished classical pieces; as well as his mother's visual art. Although he did not take music seriously as a child, the musical seeds planted came to germinate in his late teenage hood after a radical change of life onto Canadian soil.
A Director, Choreographer, Performer, Founder and Researcher, Newton was born in Porto Alegre the most important city in the south of Brazil and the capital city of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. At an early age he started dancing Samba, and then pursued studies of Physical Education at the Unisinos University in Porto Alegre. Later he studied Afro-Brazilian Dance, Jazz and street dancing. In 1991 he decided to move to Toronto were he studied Modern and Contemporary Dance at the Professional Programme at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Since his arrival in Canada in 1991, Moraes has choreographed more than fifty works, both for himself and other dancers. Newton has collaborated with choreographer Patrick Parson in "Orixás Voice" (2003) and Dancing Spirits" (2004) two new dances created by the Ballet Creole for their season at the Premiere Dance Theatre at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Newton also collaborated with Terrill Maguire in "Crazy to be born" (2003) at the World's Fare Festival at Harbourfront Centre and Alexandro Ronceria in "Agua" (2004) at the Planet IndigenUS Festival in the water at the HarbourfrontCentre.
