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Reading time 6 min

Fernando Sodré performs at Inhotim

Redação Inhotim

Born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Fernando Sodré is part of renewal movement in country viola. Last year, the artist released his third album, Viola de Ponta Cabeça [Upside-down Viola], in which he shows modern elaborated harmonies, executed with technique and precision. The result is contemporary jazz filled with influences, which he will be presenting at Inhotim this coming Saturday, June 7, at 3 p.m.With musicians Írio Júnior (piano), Esdras Neném (drums) and Enéias Xavier (bass), the viola player will also have Toninho Horta and harmonic player Gabriel Grossi as guests. Inhotim’s Blog has talked to Fernando about the concert and about his relationship with music. Check it out!

 

Inhotim’s blog – You have roots in choro music, but there are also jazz elements to your music.How do you describe what you do?

Fernando Sodré – I can say that what I play is Brazilian instrumental music. My arrangements are influenced by typical Brazilian rhythms and melodies such as choro, northeastern music and traditional music from Minas. I think it’s a mix of all that.I started out playing chorinho and only then jazz, with musician Alvimar Liberato. He introduced me to jazz and, from then on, I started studying it. In the beginning, the language was difficult for me, but I soon fell in love with it and added its elements to my music.

 

IB – In your last album, as well as at Inhotim, you play with important musicians in the Minas Gerais scene. How did it feel to add these names to your work?

FS – Enéias was the greatest responsible for this experience. I had known him for a while and we used to work together every now and then. Once, I was going to perform in Panama and drummer Márcio Bahia, who was going to play in the concert, could not travel with the band. Then, Enéias told me about Esdra (Neném). He played with us and it was a very nice experience. A few people know about this, but before thinking about Viola de Ponta Cabeça I intended to release a solo album. After this trip and other experiences, I changed my mind and decided to invite both of them to form a trio. We added other interesting elements to the recording, such as Irio’s piano and Gabriel Grossi’s harmonica. The result was a very free album, in which each one of us had a lot of autonomy to create within the arrangements proposed.Considering that we did it live, the gathering of influences and sounds was beyond my expectations. When I first listened to the tracks I noticed how well things fitted together.

 

IB – Singer and songwriter Toninho Horta is also in the album and takes part in the performance at Inhotim. Tell us about this experience.

FS – I’ve been a big fan of Toninho Horta for a long time.I have always listened to his music and he was one of my references. Throughout my career, I’ve always wanted to develop some sort of work with him. Through a common friend, I invited him when we were doing Viola de Ponta Cabeça. We sent the material, Toninho listened to it, liked it and agreed to be in the album. As soon as the recording started, he was very willing and engaged with the project. The result was this version of “Party in Olinda”, a track directed by him and that came up quite interesting.

 

IB – About the concert on Saturday, what does it mean for you to perform at a place like Inhotim?

FS – It is truly a fantastic opportunity to be able to play at a place that is respected and acknowledged both in Brazil and abroad such as Inhotim. I think my music dialogs very well with the place and the people there, so, my expectations are huge. I´m hoping it will be a great show. After all, the place’s atmosphere positively influences each track we’ll be playing. We will show a very diversified repertoire, with songs from the last album and from other ones, older ones. In addition to our base formation, Toninho Horta, Gabriel Grossi will also participate.

 

IB – The performance is part of the program for the 10th Environment Week, which is taking place at Inhotim. How do you relate to the environmental issue?

FS – It’s funny you mentioned this, because a lot of my music is created in places far from city centers. Rivers, farms, mountains, that is, places that haven’t undergone major alterations by men. Therefore, nature is a source of inspiration for me. Without it, it’s likely I would find difficulties with my creative process. Weeks such as this one are very important to raise everyone’s awareness about environmental issues.

Reading time 2 min

Inhotim by Fernanda Takai

Fernanda Takai

Our Inhotim

 

Come on, let me call it ours, because I am really proud we have a place like that so within our reach.
I have lost track of how many times I have been there and I am sure I haven’t seen it all.
You know… Everything is truly transformed there!
The landscape relies on the natural blessings of the seasons as well as on gardeners’ green thumbs.  
The same goes for the pavilions and works of art.  Each person that looks a certain way or hears more carefully notices a story.
Art is alive and breathes like we do.
That is why we must always go back!
Many times I have volunteered as a driver and guide to friends.
Spending a day at Inhotim is rejuvenating.  It is good for you.
What about the food? And the birds?
Each detail is delightful.  It is always more than you have heard of and could hope for.
And if you haven’t heard of Inhotim but love nature and art, you must plan to visit the park!
Go and take your time there. Stick around for at least two days.
Who knows?  We might come across each other in one of those trails.

Foto: Rossana Magri
Photo: Rossana Magri
Reading time 4 min

Contemporary Music Miniseries

Redação Inhotim

This coming Sunday, May 25, guitars, flutes, percussions and musical sculptures will take over Inhotim to comprise a Contemporary Music Miniseries.  Starting at 3 PM, groups from Minas, Corda Nova, Flutuar Orquestra de Flauta, UFMG Percussion Group and Quarteto Cretinos e Plásticas will perform in the Institute’s gardens, a setting the mixes nature and art in a unique way.  To invite you to experience all this, Inhotim’s Blog has asked each group to tell you what makes their music contemporary.  Check it out!

 

“Percussion might be the most emblematic instrument in Contemporary Music.  This is so because it encompasses a diversified range of sounds and instruments, incorporating everyday objects and other ones invented by the musicians themselves, generating an almost infinite sound material for the composer of contemporary music. But contemporary percussionists are not limited to sound.  Their willingness to experiment allows their music to incorporate materials found in other areas, such as drama, literature, circus, dance, technology. Thus, maybe the most contemporary thing about the work performed by UFMG Percussion Group is the absence of prejudice and the group’s constant interest in expanding the musical language.”  Fernando Rocha, member of the UFMG Percussion Group

 

“Corda Nova has established itself as a representative of its time.  With contemporaneity in our DNA, the group has focused on working with living composers, and so far has taken to stage only works requested specifically for its concerts.  Fresh ink on paper alone does not define the synch of the group with its time:  Corda Nova’s members are immersed and synched with musical production as well as with current thinking, whether by means of extreme artistic proposals or through their academic and humanity background.  This ranges from the group’s insertion into community cultural life in their homeland to experiences with communities which are not well integrated with the Western world.  All of this has been reflected on the group’s production, culminating in creations that often extrapolate the strictly sonorous world towards the plastic and scenic worlds, as well as concepts and poetics that are a possible portrait, a facet of contemporary Brazil.  – Stanley Levi, member of Corda Nova.

 

“Freedom guides the work and aesthetical orientation of Flutuar Orquestra de Flautas, a group that refuses to be attached to a specific artistic current which might limit their spontaneous expression.  This is what grants this group artistic contemporaneity and originality:  boldness in experiencing and creating.  Everything at Flutuar is freedom: the choice of repertoire, the structuring of the arrangements, the action on stage, the easiness of its members, and especially, the joy of playing as a group. ” – Alberto Sampaio, member of Fluturar Orquestra de Flauta.

 

“More than being identified with the modes of production of an era, being contemporary means to be detached from this era, so as to question it in the way you act, play, think, and, in our case, make music.  We, from Cretinos e Plásticas, investigate, explore and interrogate the musical and artistic work at the same time we make our music.  From preparing and producing the instruments, to the poetic construction of the sonorous space by way of improvisation, getting close to other forms of art expressed in the instrument itself, taking ownership of this instrument’s plasticity, what we do is explore and get detached from the way music is made and thought of today.” – Marco Scarassatti, member of Quarteto Cretinos e Plásticas.

Reading time 3 min

2014 Contemporary Music Series

Fernando Rocha

In the 1980s, Belo Horizonte was one of the most important contemporary music hubs in Brazil.  Several events, always very popular with the public, were held by Fundação de Educação Artística at Palácio das Artes This faded as time went by, but I´ve always believed that era could be revived.  

 

In 2009, I started a contemporary music group named Somente 21 in Belo Horizonte. We made several performances in the city and I ended up getting to know Rodrigo Moura, Inhotim’s curator.  From then on, we have developed the Contemporary Music Series, an event aimed at rescuing that movement that happened in the 80s, in complete harmony with the Institute’s proposal.  

 

Contemporary music is closely related to experimentation.  It comes from the tradition of concerts, of the classic, but it is based on the search for new languages.  It is a process whose pure concept involves the investigation of tones and sounds. Everything which produces a sound can be used to make music.  And the possibility to take all this to Inhotim is very interesting, since it is a space for innovation, reflection and transformation.

 

Since the first series in 2012 up to today, there have been eight concerts, which featured the work of composers who are essential to contemporary music.  The Contemporary Music Series has gown this year, with four concerts, several musicians from Minas Gerais and also from other countries and intense interaction to improvise and create new pieces or instruments.  

 

The program starts on Sunday, April 13, with a performance by pianist Xenia Pestova.  Shadow Piano, her first solo album recently launched in Europe, brings pieces played in toy pianos, which create a playful atmosphere rocked by the metallic sound typical of this instrument.  The event takes place at Teatro de Arena at Inhotim, at 1 PM.  

 

The year of 2014 will be filled with experimentation, diverse sounds and great music.

Reading time 3 min

What’s new at Inhotim Escola 2014

Redação Inhotim

The second year of Inhotim Escola promises to shake up Belo Horizonte’s agenda. Art exhibitions, films, lectures, courses, workshops and a novelty: in 2014 the the environmental theme comes in to play with the project Consumo Consciente na Praça [Concious Consumption at the Park]. Starting in April, it will promote discussions on consumption habits of modern society so as to build a more sustainable life style.

 

Among the actions planned for the year is the Dia do Carbono Zero [Zero Carbon Day], which aims to promote the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases. Moreover, two-wheel lovers will be able to participate in the Pedal Verde, a bike circuit going through the southern-central region of Belo Horizonte aimed at raising awareness to the issue of urban mobility in the state capital.

 

O Sarau realizado pelo Inhotim Escola em 2013 reuniu diversas pessoas na Praça da Liberdade, em Belo Horizonte.
The soiree held by Inhotim Escola in 2013 gathered several people at Praça da Liberdade, in Belo Horizonte. Photo: Ricardo Mallaco

 

As for the arts, also in April, the public will have the opportunity to chat with Inhotim’s curator Jochen Volz on the relationship between art and architecture in the construction of art pavilions. Jochen has organized several exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, including international shows in the 53rd Venice Biennale. Since 2012, Jochen is also chief curator of the Serpentine Gallery in London. Among other activities, the schedule of Inhotim Escola includes the seminar Visão Yanomami [Yanomami Vision], whose theme is the work of photographer Claudia Andujar. Swiss living in Brazil since the 1950s, besides registering the life of the Yanomami people, Andujar became a major activist for indigenous cause in Brazil.

 

The old buildings that are part of the Circuito Cultural Praça da Liberdade will still host part of the activities. But this year, Inhotim Escola expands its actions to different locations in the state capital and other cities, and it will no longer have a fixed venue in Belo Horizonte. So far, the actions developed by the project have involved over two thousand participants.

 

Interested? Find out more about lnhotim Escola here.