The Music of Caetano Veloso and Antônio Carlos Jobim Featuring Gaia Wilmer and Jaques Morelenbaum

Berklee Performance Center presents a celebration of Brazilian music featuring the works of two important Brazilian composers—Antônio Carlos "Tom" Jobim and Caetano Veloso. This concert showcases legendary cellist/producer Jaques Morelenbaum, saxophonist Gaia Wilmer, the Berklee World Strings directed by Eugene Friesen, and Berklee’s top faculty and student soloists.

Wilmer and Morelenbaum’s collaboration began with the idea of celebrating Veloso’s 80th birthday. Focusing on Veloso’s brilliance as a composer—beyond his greatness as a poet and singer—the duo has created a showcase and journey through his distinctive, distinctly Brazilian, instrumental music.

The concert will feature Morelenbaum performing his original arrangements of Jobim’s music with a string orchestra, followed by a 10-piece ensemble led by Wilmer and Morelenbaum. This ensemble will include flutists Maiara Moraes and Yulia Musayelyan and drummer Rafael Barata playing the music of Veloso.

Morelenbaum is a cellist, composer, arranger, and musical producer who has collaborated with prominent figures in Brazilian music, including Veloso, Jobim, Gilberto Gil, and Egberto Gismonti. He has recorded and arranged/produced some of the most important recordings in Brazilian music. His classic recordings with the Quarteto Jobim–Morelenbaum, featuring pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto, are available internationally on Sony Music.

Wilmer is a saxophonist, composer, arranger, and music producer active in both Brazil and the United States. She is well-known in the jazz and Brazilian instrumental music scenes and has worked with Gismonti, Ra-Kalam Bob Moses, Frank Carlberg, and many others.