Benji & Rita: Brazilian, Jazz & Classical Traditions

Brazilian music has a keen ability to tie the magical and surreal with the grounded and historical. New York-based composer Benji Kaplan and Brazilian singer-songwriter Rita Figueiredo pick up that vibrating, multicolored thread and weave it into fantastical new portraits of Brazil and New York on Benji & Rita, their album-length debut as a duo. Cinematic and refined, Benji & Rita channels the scents and sounds, the flora and fauna of the couple’s homelands, drawing on everything from samba and baião to waltzes and pop catchiness, much as Brazilian popular composers have over the last five decades.
 
FEATURING:
Benji Kaplan – vocals, guitar, compositions
Rita Figueiredo – vocals, guitar, compositions
 
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Benji Kaplan crafts his own mix of Brazilian music ingeniously vitalized with the full gamut of his rich musical understanding. His penultimate album, Chorando Sete Chores, features 13 pieces for acoustic guitar and wind quintet. Now releasing his fifth album, this time in duo partnership with his wife Rita Figueiredo, Benji & Rita have enchanted audience members all over Brazil, North America, and Europe with their resplendent compositions and performances. Together, they explore the intimacy of voice and guitar, blending lyrical melodies with intricate harmonies and telling stories of Figueiredo’s homeland, Brazil, in all of its beauty, complexity, simplicity, and irony.

Rita Figueiredo is a classically trained singer who shifted to popular forms, recording a 2013 debut album rich in stories that made numerous “best of” lists. She has dedicated decades to animation and illustration, with works featured in more than 20 international festivals, and had cartoons and vignettes featured on MTV Brazil and USA, Nickelodeon, TV Cultura, and many other networks. She has worked with artists such as Marisa Monte, Ed Motta, and Cássia Eller, among others. In 2015, Figueiredo moved to New York and has since been intensely dedicated to recording and performing new repertoire in partnership with Benji Kaplan. In the last three years, she has played in several cities in South and North America and Europe. She is now releasing her second album entitled Benji & Rita.
 
Learn more: Website | Spotify

 
Time: 7:00pm doors / 7:30pm show
Admission: (Online) $15-20 / (Door) $20 general, $15 student & senior with valid ID
*A limited quantity of additional tickets will be available for purchase at the door.

Purchase advance tickets for this event:

RSVP to the Facebook event:

Volunteer for this event!