Posts Tagged ‘acapella’

Music, Humanity and Me

Monday, June 8th, 2009

One of my fondest childhood memories is driving around the plains of Africa in one of those old jeeps where you could sit on the roof! My sister Sara and I spent endless trips on the roof singing – from the Beatles to hymns we learnt in Catholic school – it was wonderful. It wasn’t until my dear friend Keith founded Simply Human, an a cappella group – the singers all being friends of mine – I re-discovered my love for music, this time with a very different understanding and experience of it.

Having produced two A Cappella Innovations festivals and and meeting and getting to know musicians like Denise Reis - a remarkable musician with immense talent and capacity for taking people on a joyful emotional journey – I feel as though music holds an important role in evolving humanity.

Great musicians open up their hearts and share themselves with us through their instruments. Working with Keith, who is always looking for unique individuals who have the capacity to lift all of humanity, I have been introduced to many wonderful musicians, most recently Jen Chapin. Jen’s lyrics have a depth in their meaning and she sings them with tremendous passion.

Music brings a dimension to life words cannot describe, I just know I experience more of me through it!!

Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.

~Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

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Denise Reis

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
Denise Reis is a Brazilian singer, violinist and composer. Born in Belo Horizonte, in the State of Minas Gerais, she began studying the guitar at age 10. Four years later she attended Julia Pardini’s Choral, where she was promptly invited to take part in a European tour in 1986. As her musical career progressed, she found widespread acceptance and support from the Brazilian people and media. This success was greatly due to Denise’s remarkable ability to imitate the trumpet using only her lips and voice. Her latest album, Alfandega, was launched last year featuring musical production by Denise Reis, Marcelo Nami and acclaimed percussionist Marcos Suzano. Nine of the eleven songs in Alfandega were composed by Denise in partnership with Renata Thurler and Ronaldo Serruya. Worthy of mention are the album’s remake recordings of Miss Celie’s Blues by Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie, and Gato Negro by Getulio Cortes, in which Denise renders with utmost precision and beauty her unique vocal trumpet.
Amazing!

denise reis official site

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