FREE Courtroom Concert: Alma Brasileira

Alma Brasiliera:
Cléa Galhano, recorder
Joan Griffith, guitar and cavaquinho
David Schmalenberger, percussion

Minnesota-based musicians Cléa Galhano (recorder), Joan Griffith (guitar and cavaquinho), and David Schmalenberger (percussion) 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 Baroque Quartet and Kingsbury Ensemble and guitarist Rene Izquierdo.

As a featured soloist, Galhano has worked with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Musical Offering and Lyra Baroque Orchestra. Galhano studied in Brazil at Faculdade Santa Marcelina, the Royal Conservatory, The Hague, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, as a Fulbright Scholar. She is the Music Director of the Recorder Orchestra of the Midwest. Ms. Galhano recently received the prestigious McKnight fellowship award, MSAB Cultural collaborative and MSAB Arts Initiative.

Currently, she is a faculty member at Macalester College, Adjunct Lecturer in Music, Recorder HPI at Jacob’s School of Music, Indiana Ms. Galhano has nine recordings available on Dorian, Ten Thousand Lakes and Eldorado label . Clea is the recipient of the National Arts Associate of Sigma Alpha Iota and the American Recorder Society President’s Special Honor Award.

Joan Griffith is known in the Midwest as a teacher, performer and composer. She has toured and recorded extensively as a classical and jazz guitarist, a bassist and a mandolinist. The 2011 CD “A Girl Named Vincent” with Prudence Johnson, the 2008 jazz CD, “Sambanova” with pianist Laura Caviani, her 2009 CD “Alma Brasileira” with recorder player Clea Galhano and CD “Enter You, Enter Love,” with Lucia Newell feature many of her own compositions. Enter You, Enter Love” was chosen as one of the top ten best recordings for 1996 by jazz radio station KBEM. Her choral composition “Sweet Noel” won the 1998 Christmas Carol Contest sponsored by the American Composer’s Forum and Vocalessence. Her performances on mandolin include the Minnesota Orchestra‘s recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and as soloist with the South Dakota Symphony on their premiere recording “Journey to the Badlands”. Her mandolin and bass playing can be heard on the many recording of singer/songwriter Ann Reed. She is teaches jazz improvisation, guitar, bass and mandolin at the University of St. Thomas and Macalester College. She is also a roster artist in jazz for COMPAS, the Minnesota State Arts Board and Young Audiences.

Dr. David Schmalenberger recently performed on drumset/percussion with the Minnesota Orchestra,the Florida Orchestra, the Laura Caviani trio, the Steeles, Garrison Keillor, the Daisy Dillman Band,Cantus, cabaret legend Marilyn Maye, Take That Back!, Rebel Fiddle, the Joan Hutton Jazz Project,DAT Trio, and the Childrens Theatre Company. David also recently recorded with vocalist Connie Evingson (“Sweet Happy Life”), guitarist David Singley (“Good Hope”), trumpeter Chuck Lazarus (“Lovejoy” and “Merry and Bright”), Vicky Mountain and David Martin (“Play On”), the Laura Caviani trio with Chris Bates (“Mysterious Thelonius” and “Confluence”), and the Bill Simenson Jazz Orchestra (“Big Alpaca”). David is active as a clinician offering workshops in jazz, percussion, and world music.

Schmalenberger has served as adjudicator/clinician for several jazz festivals, both regionally and nationally. He has also presented scholarly papers and clinics for the Percussive Arts Society, the Society for American Music, the Minnesota Music Educators Association, and the International Association of Jazz Education. Schmalenberger received his DMA in Percussion Performance and World Music from West Virginia University, Master of Music Degree in Orchestral Percussion from the University of Michigan, and Bachelors Degree in Jazz Studies from Capital University. David endorses Paiste cymbals and
Premier drums.