Elizeth Cardoso, Clementina de Jesus, Cartola and Pixinguinha
In 2026 we’ll inaugurate a Vocal track at Choro Camp New England under the guidance of Mariana Baltar. Although choro is best known as an instrumental tradition, there is more than enough room within it, and in choro-adjacent traditions such as samba and forró, to integrate songs and singers into the Choro Camp program. We take our inspiration from the regionais that shaped 20th century choro — the groups that any student of choro has listened to countless times, whether they knew the names of the accompanists or not. All these groups accompanied singers, and they could do so in whatever style was required of them. We plan to do the same.
Vocal Schedule and Repertoire
Those who choose to focus on vocals at Choro Camp will meet for three 90-minute sessions a day, just like the instrumentalists, at 10, 1:30 and 4. But whereas instrumentalists will have only one class session organized around their instrumental group (guitar, bandolim, etc.), vocalists will work together for the first two sessions of the day on the repertoire you see below.
Tuesday (After Orientation)
Location TBA
10-11:30 | Wednesday – Saturday
Wednesday — Samba
Thursday — Samba
Friday — Samba
Saturday — Choro cantado
1:30-3 | Wednesday – Saturday
Wednesday — Forró
Thursday — Forró
Friday — Forró
Saturday — Bandão
On Saturday during this time, vocalists will participate in the bandão — the “big band”, in which we all play the week’s Core Repertoire together — by singing the 3 Choro cantado songs.
4 – 5:30 | Wednesday – Friday
The class session from 4 to 5:30, Wednesday through Friday is devoted to “Special Topics”. During that session everyone (instrumentalists included) will be given the option of working on Choro, Samba or Forró, and those classes will be devoted to the repertoire that vocalists have been working on. In the first part of each Special Topics class period, instrumental groups and vocalists will work separately, learning their parts, and then bring those parts together for the remainder of the time. Most of the songs we have chosen have a part for a lead singer and another that invites participation by o coro, the chorus. Choro Camp vocalists are preparing to sing whatever they wish, while the rest of us will be there to support you both instrumentally and vocally.
Friday Night Festa and the Bandão
While we don’t have camper “performances” per se at Choro Camp, we do have parties! Most of these will be of the informal, spontaneous variety. But we’ll organize two such festas at which we’ll share all the tunes and songs we’ve been working on throughout the week:
- On Friday night, we’ll have a Samba / Forró party at which we’ll play and sing all the songs that we’ve been working on from those two traditions.
- On Saturday after lunch we’ll have a bandão — a “big band” — at which everyone will play the choros we’ve been working on throughout the week, including those that have lyrics and a featured role for singers.
