Saturday, February 8, 2025
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Choro was the first popular Brazilian music, emerging in the 1870s, and is the precursor to samba, bossa nova and modern popular Brazilian music. Renowned for its virtuosic musicianship and diverse rhythmic palette, it is one of the most exciting instrumental genres on the planet. In this workshop, award-winning violinist Andrew Finn Magill who lived in Brazil for years studying choro and bandleading several choro projects, will take you on a 150-year journey of musical history, showing how this music morphed and changed the very fabric of Brazilian popular music. This workshop will be guided by slides and filled with intermittent live musical interludes on the violin to help demonstrate certain musical concepts and ideas.
Eligibility: K-12 educators from all disciplines. No prior music background is needed to participate in this professional development.
Cost: There is no registration fee to attend this event
Location: UCLA Campus (this is an in-person event)
Lunch will be provided - Participants are expected to pay for their own parking
Through this interactive music workshop, participants will:
-Understand and explain the origins of Brazilian choro music, specifically how it's connected to Africa, Europe, and Latin America
- Describe the historical context of choro's emergence and how its location in Rio de Janeiro affected the development of Brazilian popular music at large.
- Obtain cultural resources to share in their classrooms.
- Be able to teach their students/others how to reproduce the basic rhythms of the choro genre.
Registration for the workshop is completed in two steps:
1. Submission of a short online application
2. If accepted, you will receive a notification within 2 days
APPLY HERE! Registration Deadline: January 31st, 2025
Limited Seating Available
This workshop will be taught by Andrew Finn Magill
North Carolina-native violinist/fiddler Andrew Finn Magill is a Fulbright Fellow, North Carolina Arts Council Fellow, All-Ireland fiddle finalist, and 2024 Seifert Jazz violin finalist in Poland.
Magill who has been featured on NPR and PBS, moved to Brazil in 2014 to immerse himself in Brazilian choro music. Magill was signed to Ropeadope Records in 2018 for his original Brazilian music project. He followed up that release in 2021 with the sequel Festa! Says legendary Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira (Miles Davis, Chick Corea, etc): "He can fool you into thinking he is from Brazil!"
Magill has received acclaim from the foremost jazz violinists on the planet such as Snarky Puppy’s Zach Brock, who says Magill displays “effortless virtuosity.” Downbeat No.1 Rising Star of the violin Christian Howes, calls Magill’s music “really cool” and Berklee’s Matt Glaser describes Magill as “an extraordinary violin virtuoso," as well as acclaim from some of the premier Americana musicians in the country such as Grammy-winning Americana artist Tim O’Brien who says “I’m gonna listen for Finn Magill."
Q&A session with Dr. Bryan Pitts, LAI Assistant Director
For further information, please contact Veronica Zavala | zavala@international.ucla.edu
Sponsored by the Latin American Institute