BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//ox.ac.uk//NONSGML oxford.event//EN
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Europe/London
X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:19700329T010000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=3
TZNAME:BST
TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:19701025T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=10
TZNAME:GMT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Public seminar: Gabriel Lopes & Gabrielle Messeder (University of 
 Oxford)
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260604T150000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260604T160000
DTSTAMP:20260604T040232Z
UID:006a78f1-fd3f-f111-bec6-7ced8d39ab58
CREATED:20260424T165217Z
DESCRIPTION:'Listening to the Archive: What Samba School Recordings Reveal
 \, and Conceal'\n\nAbstract\nThe samba school bateria - the percussion ens
 emble at the heart of Rio de Janeiro's carnival parade - is one of the mos
 t complex and powerful collective musical traditions of the twentieth cent
 ury. Comprising up to 300 musicians playing entirely without melody instru
 ments\, the bateria is the engine of the samba school parade\, driving dan
 cers\, floats\, and singers through a sophisticated arrangement vocabulary
  built around groove\, rhythmic variation\, signal calls\, and breaks.\n\n
 The samba school itself is a community organization rooted historically in
  the Black neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro. Created in the late 1920s\, sa
 mba schools grew from the poor periphery of the city and carried with them
  the cultural memory and resilience of those communities. At a certain poi
 nt\, the Brazilian government deliberately adopted samba and the samba sch
 ools as symbols of national identity\, a nationalist political project\, m
 ost prominently during the Vargas era in the 1930s and 1940s\, that refram
 ed a Black community tradition as the soul of the nation. That political a
 ppropriation\, and the irony embedded in it\, remains central to understan
 ding what the samba school represents in Brazilian culture today.\n\nThe b
 ateria sits at the core of this tradition. It is entirely percussion (no m
 elody\, no harmony in the conventional sense) yet it supports and drives e
 very other element of the parade. Its arrangement language is built from f
 our elements: the groove\, the continuous rhythmic foundation\; the turn\,
  a short collective variation used to mark transitions\; the repique call\
 , a signal that starts or returns the groove\; and the break\, the moment 
 where the entire ensemble stops simultaneously and re-enters together\, on
 e of the most viscerally powerful moments in live carnival performance.\n\
 nThis lecture explores the bateria as a musical tradition\, traces its his
 torical development\, and asks what seven decades of carnival recordings c
 an\, and cannot\, tell us about how it became what it is today.\n\nBiograp
 hy\n\nGabriel Lopes has been a prominent figure in Brazilian music and Rio
 's Carnival culture since the early 2000s. Combining his roles as a season
 ed musician\, educator\, and researcher\, Gabriel has dedicated his career
  to preserving\, teaching\, and celebrating the rich traditions of samba s
 chool baterias.\n\nGabriel's deep expertise as an educator is exemplified 
 by his work with prestigious music institutions such as the Royal College 
 of Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire\, where he led workshops i
 n 2019\, 2023\, and 2024. In 2023\, he brought his unique approach to the 
 Conservatorium van Amsterdam\, and in 2024\, he conducted workshops at Tri
 nity School in Croydon. His ability to engage and inspire students\, coupl
 ed with his extensive experience in high-profile educational settings\, un
 derscores his standing as a respected authority in Brazilian percussion.\n
 \nAs a researcher and author\, Gabriel has made significant contributions 
 to the understanding of samba and samba school baterias. His published wor
 ks include Mestre Dudu - As Paradinhas da Não Existe Mais Quente\, As Bos
 sas do Mestre Maurão\, and Fundamentals of a Samba School Bateria. These 
 bilingual books not only document the evolution of samba rhythms but also 
 provide practical tools for musicians worldwide\, featuring audio examples
  and musical notation for paradinhas and bossas. Through these publication
 s\, Gabriel preserves the legacy of samba school drumming while making it 
 accessible to a global audience.\n\nAs a performer\, Gabriel has toured ex
 tensively with the renowned percussion group Monobloco\, captivating audie
 nces across Brazil\, the USA\, Europe\, and Japan. His dynamic performance
 s and integral contributions to Monobloco’s sound have solidified his re
 putation as a leading figure in the global samba scene. With Monobloco\, h
 e recorded two albums and two DVDs\, contributing to the group’s dynamic
  legacy.\n\nGabriel also played in Rocinha's bateria for over a decade and
  has been a member of Vila Isabel's bateria since 2019\, specializing in t
 he repique drum. As a composer\, he achieved a career milestone by enterin
 g his samba composition into Mangueira's competition in 2016. From 2005 to
  2019\, Gabriel served as the mestre de bateria for Volta Alice\, a carniv
 al group (bloco) that became a cornerstone of Rio Carnival\, attracting te
 ns of thousands of revelers.\n\nHe has also taught at Monobloco's workshop
 s\, preparing students for parades in Rio de Janeiro\, Belo Horizonte\, an
 d São Paulo. His teaching extends internationally\, with workshops held a
 cross the UK\, Europe\, the USA\, Japan\, Korea\, and Taiwan\, both in-per
 son and online. Through his brand\, Samba Beats\, Gabriel continues to sha
 re his passion for samba school baterias. His website\, YouTube channel\, 
 and social media platforms provide a wealth of educational content\, inclu
 ding tutorials\, historical insights\, and detailed analyses of samba rhyt
 hms. His dedication to teaching and research reflects his mission to prese
 rve and celebrate the cultural and musical heritage of Brazil.\n\nGabriel 
 Lopes offers an unparalleled blend of practical expertise\, academic resea
 rch\, and teaching excellence. His work not only connects audiences to the
  vibrant world of samba but also inspires the next generation of percussio
 nists worldwide.\n\n\n'Commemorating the Sambista Perfeito: Arlindo Cruz
 ’s funeral in Madureira\, Rio de Janeiro'\nAbstract\nThis talk examines 
 the local\, emotional and spiritual significance of the roda de samba (sam
 ba circle) in Rio de Janeiro’s northern suburbs through the life\, music
 \, and funeral of the celebrated sambista Arlindo Cruz. Drawing on ethnogr
 aphic fieldwork conducted in Rio\, it situates Cruz as a paradigmatic figu
 re whose oeuvre speaks to the aesthetics\, values\, and lived experiences 
 of the subúrbio. Central to the discussion is the public all-night celebr
 atory vigil (gurufim) held at the Império Serrano samba school in Madurei
 ra following Cruz’s death in August 2025. Here\, as his body lay in stat
 e\, a roda de samba played for hours in celebration of his life and to eas
 e his passing into the next realm. I will discuss how one of the songs pla
 yed throughout the night\, Cruz’s composition O Meu Lugar (‘My Place
 ’)\, articulates themes of place and local community\, Afro-Brazilian re
 ligious practices and saudade (bittersweet sadness or longing).\n\nRead th
 rough Afro-Brazilian religious cosmologies and situated within broader Afr
 o-Atlantic commemorative rituals\, the gurufim\, the roda\, and the collec
 tive singing of Cruz’s repertoire position his death as a transition thr
 ough which he becomes an ancestral sambista: one who can be invoked throug
 h song and whose canonical musical presence is sustained as part of samba
 ’s evolving\, living heritage. Finally\, I seek to contribute to broader
  debates on affect\, positionality\, and the role of emotion in ethnograph
 ic knowledge production by briefly reflecting on my own affective response
  to Cruz’s gurufim\, arguing that emotional resonance and personal grief
  are not incidental but central to understanding the roda as a therapeutic
 \, embodied\, and relational practice.\n\nBiography\n\nDr Gabrielle Messed
 er is a Fitzjames Early Career Researcher in Music at Merton College\, Uni
 versity of Oxford. Gabrielle completed her doctoral research on Brazilian 
 music and dance in Lebanon at City in 2023\, supervised by Professor Lauda
 n Nooshin. Her current research project at Merton examines the social\, ec
 onomic\, and creative importance of rodas de samba in Rio de Janeiro\, Bra
 zil. Previously\, Gabrielle was visiting lecturer in Music at Goldsmiths a
 nd City\, University of London\, and was a Research Fellow at the Universi
 ty of Greenwich on the AHRC-funded project ‘Exploring cultural diversity
  in experimental sound’ (2021-23).
LAST-MODIFIED:20260424T165313Z
SPEAKER:Gabriel Lopes\, Gabrielle Messeder
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR