CURRENT MISSION

Keep improving myself as a person and a musician.

ABOUT ME

Almir Cortes was born in Santo Antonio de Jesus, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. He is a musician, as well as an academic researcher in the field of Brazilian instrumental music. He plays genres that are considered “traditional” or “regional” (choro, frevo, baião, etc), but with a contemporary approach that includes experimentation and improvisation.

Mr. Cortes is a multi-instrumentalist who plays the following plucked string instruments: mandolin, guitar, electric guitar, cavaquinho and viola caipira. He has an undergraduate diploma in classical guitar from UFBA (Federal University of Bahia). He also has a Master’s degree in music, and is working on a Ph.D. in popular music performance at UNICAMP (State University of Campinas).

In 2005, his composition Freveando was awarded the Best Instrumental Music prize at the III Festival de Música Educadora FM in Bahia.

He has played professionally and held workshops allover Brazil, in the United States and in Europe (Italy, France and Spain). He has recorded two CDs, “Almir Côrtes” (Fábrica Discos, 2006) and “Choro da Voz” (Gravina Música, 2008, in partnership with the singer Bel Dias).

Among his most important performances are the Latin Music and Culture Celebration (Berklee College of Music), XIV Festival de Música Instrumental da Bahia, The Mandolin Symposium 2011/2012, Lotus World Music & Arts festival, , Virada Cultural Paulista and the VI Prêmio Nabor Pires Camargo. He also organized the V and VI Encontro Nacional de Choro da Unicamp. During his career, Almir has played with musicians such as Mike Marshall, Armandinho Macêdo, Jovino Santos Neto, Izaías Bueno, Ivan Vilela, Paulo Freire, Michael Spiro, Tom Walsh, Jeremy Allen and Fernando Brandão.
Almir Cortes is back to Brazil after living for one year in the United States. In 2010 he was a visiting scholar at the Jazz Studies Department at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

Por que estou no Couchsurfing?

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have been hosted in Recife - Pernambuco - Brazil. I stayed with a friend at the house of a very friendly couple: Felipe and Astrid. It was a cool experience!

Interesses

Music, movies, travels, american culture.

• arts
• culture
• performing arts
• festivals
• movies
• music
• jazz
• latin music
• guitar
• instrumental music
• world music

Países que Visitei

France, Italy

Países em que Morei

Brazil, Spain, United States