A celebration of Brazilian and Portuguese culture, SummerStage imports some of the biggest names in Portuguese-language music to Central Park. Five-time Latin GRAMMY winner and Brazilian legend Marisa Monte has been gracing the airwaves for decades, becoming one of the country’s most recognizable voices in the process. Her 2021 LP Portas—her first in nearly ten years—is a timeless masterclass in MPB (música popular brasileira). As bright and buoyant as ever, Monte hasn’t skipped a beat. Duo Joana Amendoira and Fred Martins marry Brazilian fados and melodies that meet in the middle of the Atlantic, performing works from their latest albums Na Volte la Mare and Ultramarino, as well as works Martins composed with famed writer Tiago Torres da Silva. They’re joined by Music from the Sole, a tap dance and live music company that celebrates tap’s relationship with Afro-Brazilian dance and music, connecting its lineage to samba, house dance and passinho (Brazilian street funk). DJ Lara Gerin is on the ones and twos.
Additional performance by the Afro-Brazilian percussion group, Mambembé.