Erika Ribeiro - Villa-Lobos (2026) Hi Res

Erika Ribeiro releases a new album of works from Heitor Villa-Lobos: "Starting with my first solo album, I began to pursue an original path in classical music. Of course it motivates me and fills me with great pleasure to play the canonical concert piano repertoire, but now I can say that reworking certain pieces beyond traditional interpretation constitutes a fundamental part of my aesthetic exploration.

It is in navigating between so-called musical boundaries, in the proposal of new dialogues, in the incorporation of sounds from different places and cultures that I find ways to express what I might call my essence. That is why this album seeks to approach Heitor Villa-Lobos’ music in an above-all imaginative way.

Moved by my passion for Villa’s music, an initial idea emerged: to treat the piano as a predominantly percussive instrument, focusing on the attack and the tone produced by the action of the hammer on the strings. A more organic connection between the instrument and the rhythmic foundations of the composer’s work resulted from that approach, which we tried to bring forth in the arrangements, without ever compromising his intense lyricism and harmonic inventiveness.

This idea was welcomed with intelligence, commitment and love by my partners in this adventure: Marcelo Galter, the maestro who introduced me to new references, and who produced and shaped this sound with me from the first to the last note; Reinaldo Boaventura, a percussionist who embodies an entire orchestra of timbres and sounds; Ldson Galter, who joined us in a kind of symbiosis, connected to this repertoire through an almost miraculous sense of listening; Natália Mitre, who contributed in moments when only the sensibility of her marimba and berimbau! could create meaning; Sylvio Fraga, whose singular vision foresaw the perfect group to join me on this deep dive.

Revisiting Villa is far from a novel idea. Tom Jobim, João Carlos Assis Brasil and Egberto Gismonti (to name but a few of our great creators) have already taken the maestro’s music to different realms, whether through composition, arrangement, or improvisation. In a way, I feel invited by their musicality to experiment with Villa-Lobo’s repertoire as the space for creation and discovery that it naturally is."