I am writing this post in Ireland where I am now with a group of cultural managers from Europe. It was a culture shock to come back from Brazil and have deep discussions on European cultural realities.
This will therefore be a short post based on my short telephone conversations with Robi in the past days. After I left Robi spent most of his time rehearsing for the concert and for the recording with the musicians from Curitiba. We have started a collaboration project based on Brazilian choro music and gypsy improvisation and Robi and his musician friends recorded three tracks so we can start working on the continuing the project. Instead of the planned 2 hours they spend 15 in the studio but everybody is soooo excited because the outcome is really something! I have not heard them yet but Robi as well as Joao are really pleased with the results. They were in the studio this Tuesday.
On Thursday finally the concert with the children and local musicians happened in the HSBC Theatre. I still have to get the full account of the concert and the see it on the video – it was recorded by Rafael, Joao’s brother on our camera – so I will be able to write about it when I go back to Hungary to meet Robi finally in Budapest. But in the meantime, here are some pictures that were taken by Robi’s teacher swimming and the leader of the gym we went to three-four times a week while we were in Curitiba.
Robi playing solo
Robi playing choro with his guitar teacher
Playing choro
Happy Joao and Robi
And here is something we have not talked about yet but we were doing during our three month visit. We joined a very nice gym at the beginning of March nearby our apartment, and as one of the good side effects of our trip was that Robi lost 17 kilos and I lost 12. It was intentional as – due to difficult times and stupid eating habits we we looked and felt awful when we arrived. So we decided to eat well (it is easy in Brazil as you can happily live on excellent fruit, great meat and vegetables and nuts), joined this fantastic gym – again, the specialty was not in the hardware but the people who were soooo nice and good to us! We also took swimming classes which for Robi is a big step as he has had a phobia of water and never wanted to go anywhere near water other than the bathtub. We got up at 6.30 three times a week and walked to the gym. The teachers became our friends and we are feeling much much better. Claudio suggested to Robi to change his music career into a modeling one because of the transformation he has gone through.
I will go home on Wednesday this week and have the full story of the recording and the concert and will give a full account and reflections of this amazing and incredibly inspiring trip. I am missing Brazil and its people so much!
