Delightful Brazilian and Latin musical gems performed by one of Brazil’s great pianists, Maria José Carrasqueira, and Berklee professor, flutist Wendy Rolfe, will be presented in concert at the First Congregational Church of Marion on Saturday, April 22 at 4:00 pm.
Their program will include waltzes by Ernesto Nazareth, favorites by Tom Jobim and Heitor Villa-Lobos, and other selections evocative of Brazil and Latin America. Carrasqueira and Rolfe have performed together in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and the United States, and recorded the critically acclaimed CD “Images of Brazil” together.
Renowned as performer and professor, Brazilian pianist Maria José Carrasqueira pursues her career as a soloist, chamber musician, lecturer, and recitalist in Europe, Brazil, the United States, and Latin America. She is the recipient of three of the most important prizes for classical musicians in Brazil: The Carlos Gomes Award for Best Instrumental Soloist; the São Paulo Critics of Art Association Award for Best Recitalist of the Year; and the prestigious Sharp Music Award-for Best Classical CD Production. In 2005, her CD with works by Ernesto Nazareth was released by the French label Solstice in Europe and by YB in Brazil, receiving four stars from the French magazines Le Monde de La Musique and Diapason. She has been professor of piano at the Faculdade Santa Marcelina in São Paulo and the University of Campinas.
Wendy Rolfe is a leading performer on historical and modern flutes and is well-known as a musical ambassador throughout the Western Hemisphere and overseas. She has lectured, taught, and performed in Latin America as a Fulbright Program Senior Specialist in American Music and also toured the United States with a Solo Recitalist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, presenting her unique “A Journey Through Music History with the Flute.” Ms. Rolfe performs, records, and tours with the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Baroque, and holds the piccolo chair with the Cape Symphony Orchestra. Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra’s award-winning recordings of Beethoven symphonies recently concluded with his Ninth Symphony featuring Ms. Rolfe on piccolo. She is also heard on the soundtracks of the Disney/Touchstone film Casanova and the Ken Burns PBS special on Thomas Jefferson.
Tickets for the concert at $15 for adults and $10 for students are available at The Bookstall on Front Street in Marion and at the door. For more information and reservations, call the church office at 508-748-1053. The First Congregational Church, located at 28 Main Street at the corner of Front and Main in Marion, is handicapped accessible.