PROFILE A MAGNÍFICA ORCHESTRA PAULISTANA DE MÚSICAS DO MUNDO | MUSIC AT MCB
A Magnífica Orchestra Paulistana de Músicas do Mundo is one of the honorees of the #MCBEMCASA campaign. The group would perform at the Museu da Casa Brasileira in May, in the 21st season of the Music at MCB project. However, under the guidance of the Covid-19 Contingency Center, the Secretary of Culture and Creative Economy of the Government of the State of São Paulo adopted the measure to temporarily suspend the operation of museums.
The orchestra was born from a collective musical performance conducted by the musician Gabriel Levy at Espaço Musical Ricardo Breim. The mission is to bring to the São Paulo scene an ethnic and eclectic repertoire with an immersion in world sound languages.
The word orchestra (ορχήστρα) comes from the Greek and means “the place of dance” in the theater of antiquity, a circular space shared by the choir and the musicians where everyone danced to the audience’s delight. This integration between music and dance is what The Magnificent Orchestra seeks, bringing the ancestral strength of countless cultures, evoking powerful sound archetypes of places where music and corporeality are essentially connected.
The orchestra’s performances become large multicultural parties in which the audience interacts with the artists, learning and ‘incorporating’ popular rhythms, ranging from Greece to Rajasthan, from Chile to Albania, from Mozambique to Lebanon.
Magnífica has already held concerts in spaces open to diversity in the city of São Paulo, such as Al Janiah and Paço do Baobá, among others, always with great public presence and enthusiasm. Currently there are 30 musicians with the most different trajectories, levels of musical training and age groups.
Everyone involved in the project seeks to expand access to other non-hegemonic aesthetics, paddling against the tide of the globalized world, which subordinates music production to market standards.
The members of the orchestra are perfected led by teachers and artists linked to different traditions, both Brazilian specialists in some of the ethnic music, as well as representatives of different cultures of the world: immigrants, refugees or even artists who will soon pass or tour Brazil.
Idealization and musical direction by Gabriel Levy.
Check out the video below for the version of Misirlou with the Greek singer Katerina Douka and the entire Magnifica troupe. The recording was made during the quarantine, each musician recorded his contribution directly from home!
Follow the group:
Instagram: @amagnificaorchestra
Facebook: A Magnifica Orquestra Paulistana de Músicas do Mundo
Below are other presentations by Gabriel Levy at MCB:
About the Music at MCB project
With continuous editions since 1999, the Music at MCB project has already benefited more than 240 thousand people, who had free access to shows by groups like Pau Brasil, Zimbo Trio, Coisa Fina Project, Bachiana Youth Orchestra, Aum Group, Mawaca and Traditional Jazz Band , among others. The presentations, which take place on stage set up on the terrace of the Museu da Casa Brasileira between the months of January and December, currently gather around 500 spectators on average each Sunday.
Museu da Casa Brasileira – # MCB50anos
Brig. Faria Lima, 2705 – Jardim Paulistano
Near the Faria Lima station on the Yellow Line of the Metro
Phone: (11) 3032-3727
