Opening Reception (Wednesday, 25 June 2025)
Musical Program
The musical program featured during the Opening Reception will include the following performers: Samuel André Pompeo, Felipe Barão, and Thomas George Caracas Garcia.

Samuel André Pompeo, a renowned Brazilian saxophonist, arranger, and composer, is a prominent figure in the instrumental music scene in Brazil. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with leading national and international artists, such as Gilberto Gil, Jon Anderson (Yes), Alice Cooper, Fito Páez, Toquinho, Ivan Lins, Daniel, and Gal Costa. He has also performed alongside prominent jazz musicians, including Banda Mantiqueira, Tad Nash, Ohad Talmor, Gilson Peranzzetta, Ryan Keberle, and Woody Witt. In the academic field, Samuel Pompeo holds a doctorate in music from the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and UNESP (Brazil). His research follows a challenging academic path, offering artistic solutions that expand the possibilities for musical creation and performance. As an educator, he conducts workshops and masterclasses both in Brazil and internationally, with notable roles as a professor at the São Paulo Municipal School of Music and the "Fiato Al Brasile" festival in Italy. Currently, in addition to leading the Samuel Pompeo Quintet, he is deeply engaged in an in-depth study of Choro, a quintessentially Brazilian genre, which he reinterprets through various perspectives, ranging from jazz-inspired to symphonic approaches. His artistic vision not only honors the roots of this musical style but also elevates it to new levels of complexity, solidifying his role as an innovative and influential voice in instrumental music.

Felipe Barão is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, and producer with over 25 years of experience. Holding a Master’s in Ethnomusicology and currently a PhD candidate at the University of Aveiro with a scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), his research focuses on traditional Portuguese violas. He is also a researcher at the Museu Nacional da Música in Lisbon, specializing in plucked chordophones. Barão has worked with Brazilian artists like Dulce Quental and Luciano Magno and has performed alongside international musicians such as jazz pianist Jeff Gardner. He was the guitarist for the Brazilian tour of Jim, a show about Jim Morrison, starring actor Eriberto Leão, which took him to prominent stages across Brazil, including Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, Teatro São Pedro in Porto Alegre, and Guairão in Curitiba. His notable projects include bands like Social Samba Rock and BSB Disco Club, performances in “Fado à Brasileira,” and classical work with Duo Nhapôpé alongside soprano Márcia Kern, performing modernist Brazilian works by Heitor Villa-Lobos, regularly featured in the Música no Museu series in Rio de Janeiro.

Thomas George Caracas Garcia, professor of ethnomusicology, guitarist and luthier, is on the faculty of Miami University. Specializing in Brazilian and Portuguese music, he has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Brazil, in diverse cultural institutions including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York, the Villa-Lobos Museum and the Museum of the Republic of Rio de Janeiro, the Salle Bulgaria in Sofia, Palácio Monserrat in Sintra, Portugal, the “Fiato Al Brasile" festival in Faenza, Italy, Music Hall in Cincinnati and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He has performed with Grammy-award winning artist such as Wynton Marsalis, Bob Dylan, Paquito de Rivera, Nestor Torres and Jessica Rivera. The Duma newspaper of Sofia, Bulgria wrote: “A brilliant soloist, Thomas Garcia conquered the public from the first notes of his performance, with his clear sound and warm tone.” Garcia holds a doctorate in Historical Performance Practice from Duke University, a Master’s in Musicology from the University of Massachusetts, and performance degrees from the Juilliard School. His publications include articles on the history of guitar and Luso-Brazilian music in the Luso-Brazilian Review, Veduta (Portugal) and Journal of Popular Culture, among many others, as well as numerous book chapters and encyclopedia articles. He recently published a chapter on Brazilian musician Jacob do Bandolim in the book Mazel Tov, Amigos!: Jews and Popular Music in the Americas, which won a prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology for contributions to Jewish music scholarship. He is author of the book Choro, A Social History of a Brazilian Popular Music, editor of the anthology Global Popular Music, and most recently, editor of the English-language catalog of the Villa-Lobos Museum in Rio de Janeiro. He serves on graduate committees at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, where he served as an investigator for EcoMusic, a project dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of Portuguese folk and popular music. Garcia performs on experimental guitars of his own design and construction.

After the Conference ... Publication of Articles

The Lusophone Studies Association (LSA) is pleased to announce a PSR Special Issue based on the conference "Exploring the Lusophone World Through Transcultural and Intersectional Perspectives," held at the University of Porto, in Porto, Portugal, 25-27 June 2025.

We welcome abstracts from the LSA conference presenters who delivered individual papers. Only conference participants are invited to submit their abstracts, to be followed by duly completed papers that will undergo a double-blind peer review and (if accepted) will be published in the Portuguese Studies Review.

Individual paper abstract submissions should include names(s) of author(s); institutional affiliation; email address(es); title of abstract; and an abstract (250 words, maximum). Abstracts must be submitted in MS Word or RTF (Rich Text File) format and in Times New Roman font size 12. Please direct your abstract submissions to the above e-mail with the subject header “Special PSR Issue: LSA University of Porto Conference, 2025”. Prof. Kenedy will respond to all abstract submissions before 15 August 2025.

The deadline for submission of the completed papers is 30 October 2025. The papers may be submitted in English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish. The papers should be 6,000-12,000 words in length and use PSR house style footnotes [APA / MLA and related styles, aka ‘parenthetical referencing’, are not allowed] (for all PSR file format instructions, specific PSR footnote format [modified classic Chicago Manual of Style — Humanities], documentation specifications [illustrations & copyright clearance, etc.], plus all other frequently asked manuscript submission questions, see https://maproom44.com/psr/submissions.html and related links and https://maproom44.com/psr/author_faq.html).

Extensive limited (i.e. preview only) PDF samples of previous PSR issues (e.g. 2019-2022)—demonstrating the required journal (PSR) style—are available worldwide for immediate download on the PSR website, to assist authors (New Series [Latest PreviewYears]: https://maproom44.com/psr/bk_issues.html).