Regional Samauma, featuring Caio de Souza 

Caio de Souza (viola caipira) 

Caio de Souza is one of the most distinguished viola caipira (10-string guitar) players of his generation, with a unique musical approach that combines his influences from Brazilian traditional music, classical music and world music. His most recent projects include a residency with OneBeat, produced by Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation, and a series of three visual albums, No Pinicado da Viola, evoking the instrument’s musical origins. Caio has toured internationally (Germany and France) with his former group Sexteto Clariô, and has performed in several cities in Brazil with distinguished artists such as Mestre Bule Bule (Bahia), Juraildes da Cruz (Goias), the country duo Zé Mulato and Cassiano (Brasilia), and Rubinho do Vale (Minas Gerais), among many others. He made his debut as a soloist with the University of São Paulo Philarmonic Orchestra in cities across the state of São Paulo. Caio has released three albums: Urutu with Leticial Leal (viola caipira), Espalha Brasa - Zequinha de Abreu na Viola Caipira with Caio de Souza Quartet, Onde Está o Jeca with his group Soprano a Viola and one EP: Foi Ontem, Será Amanhã with Arthur Boscato (7 strings guitar). Caio de Souza holds a bachelor degree in viola caipira performance from the University of São Paulo and started his M.A. in ethnomusicology at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA. 

Fernanda Silveira (cavaco) 

Fernanda Silveira is a Cavaquinho player specializing in the Brazilian practices of Choro and Traditional Samba. Born on the island of Florianópolis (SC) - Brazil, she started in music at the age of eight, influenced and supported by her parents. She perfected herself with Wagner Segura (SC), cavaquinista Luciana Rabello (RJ), guitarist Mauricio Carrilho (RJ) and maestro Ian Guest (RJ), among others. She is a founding member of Choro Group Ginga do Mané (SC), and was a longtime member of the Traditional Samba group Um Bom Partido (SC). Since 2008, she has played cavaquinho for the Samba School Os Protegidos da Princesa (SC) at yearly Carnival Parades. Fernanda has taught cavaquinho at the Wagner Segura Musical Center - in Florianópolis, at the EPM/UNIRIO Portable Music School - in Rio de Janeiro. She was a cavaquinho teacher at the second edition of the Choro Festival in the USA in the city of New England, known as Choro Camp of New England. As a Choro Regional musician, Fernanda has accompanied many artists including guitarists Yamandu Costa (RS) and Maurício Carrilho (RJ), clarinetist Nailor Proveta (SP), mandolinists Pedro Amorim (RJ), Geraldo Vargas (SC) and Miltinho Mori (SP), as well as Ronaldo do Bandolim and Jorginho do Pandeiro - both members of the group Conjunto Época de Ouro from Rio de Janeiro. As a Traditional Samba side-musician, Fernanda has accompanied a variety of artists including Monarco (RJ), Nelson Sargento (RJ), Tantinho da Mangueira (RJ), and Nadinho da Ilha (RJ), as well as the Old Guards of Samba Schools including the Velha Guarda da Mangueira (RJ) and the Velha Guarda da Embaixada Copa Lord (SC), among others. Since 2017 she has contributed to the launch of Samba de Terreiro in Florianópolis / SC and Samba de Terreiro in Brooklyn. Currently lives in the USA and plays Choro and Samba in the New Jersey and New York music scene. She is a teacher of cavaquinho at Rowan University Community Music School - in Glassboro, NJ. 

Fábio Oliveira (percussion) 

Fabio Oliveira is a performer with a wide variety of professional experiences as a percussionist, singer, improviser, and conductor, working regularly in solo, chamber, orchestral, and artist accompaniment settings and navigating consistently between traditional Brazilian music, Jazz, and European Classical Music. Transversing these traditions is an important and distinctive feature of his work.He has performed throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, has worked or collaborated with notable classical composers such as Roger Reynolds, Steve Reich, Philippe Manoury, Helmut Lachenmann, Flo Menezes, Chaya Chernowin, Michael Gordon, and Paulo Guicheney, and has recordings released on Tzadik, New World Records, Mode Records, and Naxos Classical. As a scholar, he's theorized and published about traditional Brazilian Pagode and Samba Music, as well as multiple-percussion performance - dealing with music by Aperghis, Xenakis, and Tutschku, preparing performances with live electronics, text translation in Instrumental Musical Theatre, composer-performer collaboration, and instrument building. 

As a performer of Traditional Brazilian Music (voice and percussion), Fabio has been a featured artist in California, New Jersey, and New York. He’s accompanied well know Brazilian artists, including Diogo Nogueira and Lenine. As a percussionist and conductor of the Brazilian Big Band - Banda Pequi, between 2009-2019 Fabio recorded a CD with Leila Pinheiro, a DVD with Nelson Faria and João Bosco, and accompanied Monica Salmaso. He also participated in the recording of the DVD “Mães D’Água” accompanying singers Mart'nália, Luciana Mello, Margareth Menezes, Daúde, Paula Lima, and Alaíde Costa. Fabio Oliveira was also a band member of the samba group Heróis de Botequim for 5 years, traveling and playing shows throughout Brazil and recording in their 2017 DVD. 

Since 2019, Dr. Oliveira has been the Director of Percussion Studies at Rowan University (NJ, USA), a position he previously held at the Federal University of Goiás - Brazil, between 2009-2019. A serving member of the Percussive Arts Society New Music/Research Committee since 2019, Fabio hosts the 2023 Focus-day titled “Latin American Percussion Music”, curating five concerts at the 2023 Indianapolis PAS International Convention. Having performed at the PASIC feature opening night concert in 2004, he has been back over the years to perform and present clinics. He has also been a percussion judge and consultant to the Samba Carnival Parades in São Paulo - Brazil, between 2017-2019. Dr. Oliveira holds degrees from the São Paulo State University - Brazil (BM - 2001), the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (MM - 2004), and the University of California at  San Diego (DMA - 2009). 

Vitor Sampaio (7 strings guitar) 

Graduated in Music by the Music Department of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Gustavo Costa. He is currently studying a Masters in Performance at Hunter College in Manhattan, NY, under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Joao Luiz Resende Lopes. He is also an adjunct professor at the same institution responsible for elementary guitar subjects I and II. He is a member of the “Choro Da Casa” project, which brings together several ‘chorões’ musicians from the city of Ribeirão Preto. He has performed in different situations, both as a soloist and in chamber formations, including participations in front of the USP- Philharmonic. He is a member of the Duo Botelho-Genari, in partnership with guitarist Fernando Donizete Genari, finalists of the Nascent competition in 2019.