Our weekly festival, every Tuesday at Dalston Eastern Curve Garden with Brazilian folk band Choro Alvorada, internatinal violin virtuoso Max Baillie, and the latin-inspired songwriter Li Alba.
CHORO ALVORADA
Alvorada is a London-based group who play Brazilian Choro music of all styles, including lesser-known works and original compositions.
Choro emerged in Rio in the late 19th century as a mixture of European harmony with African rhythm and improvisation, in a similar way to jazz and ragtime.
The word 'choro' comes from the Portuguese verb 'chorar', which means 'to cry'. Indeed, Choro music certainly has its fair share of tear-inducing laments. But Choro is mostly known for its lively, playful and syncopated melodies in the traditional setting of a 'roda'; that is, with musicians playing informally around the table (drinking plenty of beer - provided by the loving fans, of course!).
Alvorada play a wide variety of styles of choro, exploring influences from all over Brazil (and London). We play choros with the irrisistable swing of samba from the South and baião from the Northeast, and even in the style of frevo, a Carnival dance from the Northeast! Many of the Choros we play are our own compositions, so you may find a Cockney twist to them...
Alvorada have the traditional instrumentation of the 'regional' choro ensemble:
Andrew Woolf - clarinet
Rachel Hayter - flute
Luiz Morais - 7 string guitar
Jeremy Shaverin - cavaquinho
Alua Nascimento - pandeiro
Choro Alvorada famously continued to play through a thunderstorm at the Curve Garden in Summer 2017, bringing a portion of the audience onto the stage with them in the style of the traditional roda.
MAX BAILLIE
Max is truly one-in-a-million. Born to the sound of his twin sisters practising scales and argeggios, raised by his concert-cellist father and violin-teacher mother, before travelling the world and gaining a first-class degree from Cambridge University in... Politics. Apart from that short sabbatical, Max's whole life has been music. Yet when you watch and listen, there is a spontaneity in his playing that makes you realise that in spite of all the history, education, and practise, a Max Baillie has to be born rather than made.
Max-in-a-million is an international artist, having performed in Switzerland, Italy, South Africa, France, Australia and many other corners in the last 12 months, both as a concert soloist and with other projects including ZRI, who fuse sounds of Brahms with gypsy and Hungarian folk.
LI ALBA
Singer. Linguist. Lover of Latin, Jazz and Folk traditions. Voice of velvet and force of nature. Li Alba grew up in London, listening to traditional Spanish and Greek music whilst training as a classical singer. Graduating from Guildhall juniors in music and RADA in acting, she fell away from opera and into wild Easter European theatre arts, as a professional member of the Gardzienice Theatre Co. Partaking in independent arts projects around the world she has worked through music and staged mediums with global practitioners including Katie Mitchell, Mark Ravenhill, James Brennan and Julian Maynard Smith.
She has contributed to London's night life scene by supporting in the launches of two venues, Kansas Smitty's and Juju's Bar & Stage, and is now embarking on her solo career with a plethora of musicians with global flavours and feels. She is accompanied by guitarist Telmo Souza who has played for Rhythms Of The City, Ines Loubet, amongst many others, and leads the astonishing Afro Samba ensemble Caravela.
ABOUT THIS EVENT
Since our first season in 2013, our event at Dalston Eastern Curve Garden has always inspired audiences in a unique and thrilling way. This season of events captures the essence of a weekend rural festival in the centre of Dalston on a Tuesday evening.
The phenomenal surrounds of the garden combine with delicious pizzas from David Latto, and a supreme and ever-evolving roster of acts, to create a magical atmosphere which brings people together in a friendly and welcoming space.
It's a community of music-lovers, summer-lovers and life-lovers, joining to celebrate the warm months in a carefree and supportive atmosphere, with a compelling live soundtrack.
TICKETS
£6 Advance
£10 Door
PLEASE NOTE that this is an outdoor concert which will go ahead regardless of the weather. Please bring appropriate clothing, including waterproofs if rain is forecast.