Minas

In keeping with July's traditional heat, Minas will bring to Hampshire County sultry sounds from South America. Prior to the performance, a talk will introduce the style of music and instrumentation common to Brazil

This performance by Minas is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, developed and funded by the Vira I. Heinz Endowment; the WIlliam Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency, and The Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

As prominent members of the Philadelphia Jazz community, Minas frequently performs original music in concert. The band's Brazilian jazz repertoire incorporates samba, bossanova, axe, choro, and fusion, with selections from its three independent releases, "Blue Azul", "Dreams of Brazil" and "Num Dia Azul", as well as standards from renowned artists such as Jobim, Sergio Mendes, Milton Nascimento, Djavan and Ivan Lins.
Orlando Haddad and Patricia King formed Minas in 1978 in college in North Carolina to bring Brazilian music to stateside audiences. They proceeded to play all over the eastern US before going back to their musical roots in Brazil, where they entertained audiences in Rio, Recife and Belo Horizonte. Today Minas is one of the most sought after Brazilian bands in the United States. Minas' original sound is defined by the unique blend between Orlando Haddad's and Patricia King's vocals and the interaction of their Brazilian classical guitar and cool jazz piano.

Minas is built upon the duo's multiple talents as vocalists, instrumentalists and composers with an impressive grasp of the whole range of Brazilian musical idioms. At the core of any Minas show are the voices of its leaders, the blending of which reflects two decades of vocal harmonizing. Warm and engaging, this magical blend is supported by Orlando's guitar and Patricia's keyboards. Minas has won Best of Philadelphia awards from Philadelphia Magazine twice, in 1989 and 1997.

Orlando and Patricia have been composing original material together since the moment of their first meeting in 1974, and individually before that. Their recorded material consists almost exclusively of originals. They are now working on a songbook of published and unpublished work as a way to make their music accessible for performance and recording by other artists. Their original music has accompanied the documentaries "Black Water" by Charlotte Cerf (PBS) and "Amazon Journal" by Geoffrey O'Connor (Discovery Channel, PBS), and "Video Cruise Guide to the Bahamas Islands".

Minas has performed at Lincoln Center in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Mellon Jazz Festival, Bethlehem Music Festival, many Philadelphia venues and Atlantic City casinos. They have appeared on "Emeril Live" on the Food Network and been featured on "Fresh Air" and "Radio Times" on National Public Radio, Sounds of Brazil with Sergio Mielniczenko (KPFK/PRI), and Trem Azul with Milton Nascimento (syndicated in Brazil). Minas' CDs play on public and commercial radio throughout North America.