MANOA Quartet — Brazil meets Venezuela

Field notes

MANOA frames its repertoire as living material rather than literal folklore, combining Brazilian forms such as choro and baião with Venezuelan joropo, merengue, and calypso. Its instrumentation is unusually specific: six-string cavaquinho, Venezuelan cuatro, piano, and double bass. The site gives individual biographies for all four musicians and lists concerts in Paris, Brussels, and Madrid, with the Brussels date also offering a masterclass on Brazilian and Venezuelan traditions.