Cartas Brasileiras (in English, Brazilian Letters) is the title of a project focused on the reinterpretation of Brazil’s musical patrimony, including the popular expressions of samba and choro, through an orchestral jazz format, mainly based on the compositions of Léa Freire, a Brazilian flutist and composer, with musical direction and symphonic arrangements by Felipe Senna, a musical director with an important career and who has collaborated with some of the great names of Brazil’s music, such as Toquinho and Amilton Godoy, among many others. Cartas Brasileiras is also the album, released in 2007, recorded by a large ensemble of 62 musicians. In Guimarães, Léa Freire will interpret the compositions of the album and will also present some new pieces, composed with the same purpose of incorporating a myriad of musical elements from very different sources, therefore contributing to the reinterpretation and revaluation of the extraordinarily rich patrimony of Brazilian popular music. The flutist and composer will perform with a trio of piano, drums and bass, formed by reputed instrumentalists from Brazil, all of them with relevant careers under their own name or in collaboration with prominent Brazilian figures such as Dorival Caymmi, Hermeto Pascoal or Carlinhos Antunes, among others.

The founding principle of the project Cartas Brasileiras is that of miscegenation, which was and still is one of the fundamental and decisive elements of Brazilian culture. The aim is to celebrate musical expressions which are usually unrepresented in modern music, therefore paying a tribute to the creative potential of non-scholar musical idioms. The invitation to the Guimarães Orchestra to collaborate with this project is also perceived in that same spirit of mutual influence, favouring the contact between professional and amateur musicians, between Portuguese and Brazilian musicians, and between very different musical universes, gathered in a common purpose of multicultural dialogue through music.