Adolfo Mendonça

60 years ago Brazilian music exploded in the United States when Stan Getz, Luiz Bonfa, Joao Gilberto and Sergio Mendes performed at Carnegie Hall in 1962, launching an interest in Brazilian music and composers including Antonio Carlos Jobim. Please join us in this spirit as we welcome seasoned Brazilian jazz pianist and veteran music educator Adolfo Mendonça on the Timucua stage to delight with Brazilian jazz and Bossa standards flavored by his original interpretations. That intersection between jazz and Brazilian music is Mendonça’s area of expertise as an award-winning jazz improvisor. He has performed on three continents and has a long background of teaching Brazilian and American music in guest lectures in several top-ranked Latin American colleges and conservatories.

“Some songs must be played the way they were recorded, or they lose the feeling”, says Mendonça about classics such as “Dindi” and “Quite Nights of Quiet Stars”. However, others, such as “No More Blues”, “Desafinado” and others, go into a fresh direction, being reinterpreted as Brazilian jazz.”

As an educator, Adolfo has been a full-time instructor at Guarulhos Conservatory in Brazil for several years, and has been teaching piano lessons for more than 20 years. He has also taught masterclasses in several top-10 Latin American universities and conservatories. Currently living in Iowa, where he pursues his PhD in music, some of his recent activities include receiving an award in a Brazilian music piano competition, a sold-out performance at Blue Note Sao Paulo and the recording of his new album featuring jazz improvisation with electronic instruments, with influences of Brazilian music, American jazz, and rock.