Join us for a lovely afternoon concert of Brazilian Jazz in our outdoor theater. Two incredibly talented duos will uplift and relax your spirit with the smooth, melodic sounds of Brazilian Jazz.
Tickets are $25 advance, $30 at the door. This event is FREE for OCA members. To use your free member registration, please email us.
Doors open for entrance at 2:15 PM. No outside food/drink allowed except water. Bring your own low-backed chair or seat cushion, contact us for handicapped seating at info@occidentalcenterforthearts.org
Mônica da Silva
is a Brazilian American singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. She grew up living between the Midwest, United States, and Belém, Brazil, a city on the Amazon River. A love of travel and foreign language helped to forge her unique sound, a genre she calls "Indie Nova". Bringing her cultural diversity to her songs, she smoothly flows between languages (English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French), and takes her listeners on a journey. Through her music, da Silva hopes to expose people to different cultures, sounds, and new ways of thinking.
Paralleling her life, da Silva's music contains an eclectic mix of Brazilian and American influences. Her sound can be classified as International Fusion, as it is heavily influenced by Brazilian music, namely Bossa Nova, but also incorporates elements of French Pop, Lounge, Electronica, Indie Pop, and Worldbeat.
In 2010, da Silva released her album “Brasilissima”. The record features songs in English and Portuguese. The first single “Aí Então”, was chosen by Putumayo World Music to be included on their compilation “Brazilian Beat”. The upbeat, psychedelic track “That’s Not The Way” was included in the programming of The World Cup 2014. Another song from that album "Push Me Away", was licensed by Patron Tequila in 2015, for their video "The Making of The Bottle".
In 2017, da Silva's song "Back To His Girl" was featured in the Golden Globe Award winning film "Lady Bird". Her latest single “Soldado de Amor” (2017), was nominated for a 2018 International Brazilian Press Award. The track was featured in the BBC One series "The Replacement”, in the 2018 Paramount Network series "American Woman", and appeared in the 2019 Fall Campaign for the American fashion label Tory Burch. She is currently recording a new, full-length album, as well as writing and recording with her project, Complicated Animals.
Chad Alger
is a musician and producer who has been crafting creative, unique mixes of all genres since 2008, when he co-founded Socialite Fiasco Music. As the Executive Producer at Socialite Fiasco Music, he has produced and mixed albums, and licensed music with major brands and television networks both nationally and internationally.
First and foremost, Chad has been a musician all his life. He has been playing, writing, mixing and producing since childhood; listening to every kind of music he could get his hands on. Performing on many instruments in different projects, Chad learned what it takes to craft creative, unique mixes in all genres.
Natalie Cressman
draws inspiration from a vast array of musical currents. A prodigiously talented trombonist possessing a voice as cool and crystalline as an Alpine stream, , she’s spent the last 14 years touring as a horn player and vocalist with Phish's Trey Anastasio, while also performing around NYC with jazz greats Wycliffe Gordon, Nicholas Payton, Anat Cohen, Dave Douglas, and Peter Apfelbaum. Deeply versed in Latin jazz, post-bop, pop, and Brazilian music, Cressman has released three albums under her own name as well as three acclaimed duo albums with Brazilian-born guitarist Ian Faquini, her primary musical partner for the past decade. Together they’ve honed a singularly expansive creative communion encompassing their love of the Brazilian songbook, jazz, Impressionism and sophisticated pop songcraft. Focusing on their original songs, the duo’s recordings include 2019’s Setting Rays of Summer, 2022’s Auburn Whisper, and 2024's GUINGA, a tribute to the revered Brazilian composer and guitarist. Cressman’s trombone prowess has earned her widespread recognition. In both 2019 and 2023 Downbeat awarded her “Rising Star Trombone” honors in the magazine’s annual critics’ poll.
Ian Faquini
writes exquisitely sophisticated Brazilian pop music in the omnivorous tradition known as MPB (música popular brasileira), which has often been deeply influenced by jazz. Born in Brasília and raised in Berkeley, Faquini is a protégé of Guinga, the revered Brazilian guitarist and songwriter whose tunes have been recorded by dozens of MPB stars.
In 2014, Faquini released his debut album with flautist Rebecca Kleinmann, Brasiliense, which features his original compositions reflecting his love of jazz and Impressionism and his growing mastery of Brazilian musical forms. He followed up with 2016’s Metal na Madeira, a collaboration with acclaimed vocalist Paula Santoro, who hails from Minas Gerais. Conjuring the physical and cultural landscape of Brazil’s northeast with maracatu, frevo, baião, xote, and toada rhythms, the project features an all-star cast of collaborators, including Brazilian saxophone great Spok (leader of Recife’s Spok Frevo Orquestra), Bay Area multi-reedist Harvey Wainapel, trombonist Jeff Cressman, keyboardist and accordion player Vitor Gonçalves, bassist Scott Thompson, drummer/percussionist Rafael Barata, and pandeiro master Sergio Krakowski. Since then, Faquini has focused on his partnership with trombonist, vocalist, and lyricist Natalie Cressman, with whom he was a finalist for duo of the year in 2023’s Jazz Journalists Critics Poll. They’ve recorded three albums, 2019’s Setting Rays of Summer, 2022’s Auburn Whisper, and the soon-to-be released Guinga, a tribute that features the maestro on five tracks.
With a singular set of skills, highly personal compositional style, and lush harmonic palette, Faquini is one of the most respected guitar players in the San Francisco Bay Area.