São Paulo Choro Quartet featuring Alessandro Penezzi & Alexandre Ribeiro

Acclaimed São Paulo musicians Alessandro Penezzi, guitar, and Alexandre Ribeiro, clarinet, join flutist Jane Lenoir and pandeiro player Brian Rice for an evening of Brazilian choro music. Clarinetist and composer Alexandre Ribeiro has been called ‘one of the most brilliant Brazilian instrumentalists of the new generation’ by Brazilian music critic Carlos Calado.  Alexandre has performed and recorded with such renowned Brazilian musicians as Guinga, Paulo Moura, Léa Freire, Dominguinhos, Yamandu Costa, Conjunto Epoca de Ouro and Danilo Brito.  His own personal catalogue of recordings includes the 2005 “Homenagem a Altamiro Carrilho” with Grupo Ó do Borogodó, two albums with guitar virtuoso Alessandro Penezzi and a 2014 album with his own Alexandre Ribeiro Quartet. His most recent solo album, “De Pé na Proa” is a collection of nine of his original compositions that feature clarinet, bass clarinet and his experiments with electronic effects—loop pedals, harmonizers, etc.  Considered one of the great Brazilian guitarists of his generation, composer, arranger and guitarist Alessandro Penezzi was born in Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil in February, 1974. He began his musical studies at seven years old. A multi-instrumentalist, Alessandro plays 7-string guitar, tenor guitar, cavaquinho, mandolin and flute. His teachers were Carlos Coimbra, Jair T. de Paula, Sérgio Belluco, and João Dias Carrasqueira. He has taught at California Brazil Camp since 2010 and is building a following in the US as one of the great virtuosos and composers in the Brazilian popular music genre. He resides in Piracicaba and São Paulo, Brazil. and tours regularly to Europe and Africa. He has recorded over 40 albums of music with Brazil’s most renowned musicians. He has just completed a US tour performing choro with mandolinist Mike Marshall.  Jane Lenoir, flutist, is director of Berkeley Choro Ensemble and Co-Director of Berkeley Festival of Choro. An eclectic musician with performing styles ranging from classical music, jazz, latin and more, she has focused in recent years on Brazilian music. In 2018, Jane released two albums of Brazilian music: Jane Lenoir plays Penezzi,  with the composer and 7-string guitarist Alessandro Penezzi, and The View from Here, with Berkeley Choro Ensemble, featuring the music of contemporary Brazilian composers. She has also recorded with Paulo Sergio Santos, Carlos Oliveira, Caio Marcio Santos, Léa Freire and more.  Percussionist Brian Rice graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy and Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a B.M. in Percussion Performance and Ethnomusicology. A faculty member at UC Berkeley and UC Davis in latin percussion styles, Brian is a highly acclaimed performer, educator and recording artist adept at numerous musical styles ranging from classical and jazz, to Latin, Afro-Cuban, and Brazilian, to contemporary and experimental music. Brian's study of the Brazilian pandeiro began in 1986 when the Sao Paulo State University percussion ensemble visited Oberlin and percussionist/composer Carlos Stasi, then a student at SPSU, gave Brian a quick pandeiro lesson after the concert. Since then Brian's obsession with the pandeiro has led him to study with Guello, Marcos Suzano, Airto, Claudio Bueno and Clarice Magalhaes, and his prowess on the instrument has led him to perform with numerous Brazilian artists including Jovino Santos Neto, Paulo Sergio Santos, Danilo Brito, Dudu Maia and Jorge Alabe.