Acclaimed soloist and recording artist Clara Rodriguez performs together with highly regarded artists specialising in Latin-American chamber music. Flautist Efrain Oscher leads the Bolívar Soloists and has just recorded the CD México! with tenor Rolando Villazón; Cristóbal Soto is the founder of two of the best Venezuelan music ensembles, Gurrufío and Recoveco; and Wilmer Sifontes specialises in Latin percussion. Read the full story

Lang Lang with Youth Orchestra of Bahia @ Royal Festival Hall

Back in 2010, the Youth Orchestra of Bahia became the first Brazilian youth orchestra to perform in Europe, at the Southbank Centre, in London. Almost a year after, the young and talented musicians of Bahia came back to Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall on Saturday 21st May. This time the Youth Orchestra of Bahia were accompanying the world acclaimed Chinese pianist Lang Lang and the seventeen year-old Venezuelan conductor virtuoso Ilyich Rivas. Read the full story

The much-heralded Chinese pianist Lang Lang has inspired a number of concerts at the Southbank Center this summer. Among his performances will be a show with the Youth Orchestra of Bahia, last seen kicking up a storm at the same venue last year. Read the full story

The colourful Brazilian summer at the Southbank Centre draws to a close on the first weekend of September, and to add to the occasion the miniature favela of Project Morrinho is to be given away brick by brick to mark the end of Festival Brazil. Read the full story

JD picks the best of the hottest event this summer: Southbank Centre’s Festival Brazil

It’s been a long time in the making and it wasn’t easy. Over 70 Brazilian events in the form of concerts, exhibitions, talks, films and performances are taking over the Southbank Centre. This summer-long festival is a combo of local Brazilian artists, classic names, and up-and-coming musical and literary voices. Mix this with a big dose of audience involvement and the line up might just transport you mentally a little bit closer to the shores of Brazil.

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The project that started out like child’s play and changed the life of a community

“In 1997, when I was 14, there were two paths I could’ve taken in life, but the wealth and respect promised by the world of crime appeared much more immediate. I created an alternative for myself”, recalls Cilan Oliveira, one of the founders of the social project ‘Morrinho’, in Rio de Janeiro. It was child’s play that made the dream of a new life tangible for Cilan, and for the community of the Pereira da Silva favela, more commonly known as ‘Pereirão’. “During that period my brother, Maycon Oliveira, and I began building a model of Pereirão with my father’s leftover construction materials. It wasn’t anything more than a bit of fun, to keep ourselves occupied and forget about the problems of our day-to-day lives”. Read the full story

Brazilian fever is hitting the UK hard this year, with Festival Brazil at the Southbank Centre and the likes of Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Maria Rita and Céu performing here and there, and even the notorious Wallpaper* Magazine has been seduced by its allure. Read the full story