Richard Boukas

RICHARD BOUKAS is a choral singer, composer, arranger, guitarist, conductor, professor and ambassador of Brazilian music for more than 50 years. 

His musical and scholarly experience with diverse Brazilian genres (MPB, music of Minas Gerais, choro, classical, jazz, music of Hermeto Pascoal) alongside polyphonic choral and chamber idioms shape his eclectic, organic approach to composing and arranging contemporary Choral music. 

His CHORAL COMPOSING and ARRANGING demonstrate these keys traits:

• Brazilian POLYRHYTHMIC TEXTURES melded with prima practica contrapuntal textures.

• Rigorous INDEPENDENT PART-WRITING and robust creative tools to transform works composed originally for other vocal or instrumental ensembles.

• Broad harmonic and stylistic range, drawing upon choral eras ranging from Renaissance to contemporary. These stylistic contrasts are often utilized within the same piece.

• Expanding FORMAL dimensions with new introductions, interludes and codas.
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SÉRGIO SANTOS- Music of Minas Gerais

The brilliant music of Sérgio Santos is praised for its effortless melodic lyricism, sophisticated mineiro harmonic vocabulary and diverse genres– most notably when merged with the rhythmically complex afro-mineiro traditions such as congado and moçambique among others.

Congado appears in a broad range of tempi and is most commonly performed in 6/8 or 4/4 meter.

Santos enriches further his infectious alchemy with odd meters 5/4, 7/8 and 9/4. 

His ease of vocal agility and dynamic percussive articulation challenge both the choral arranger and choir when adapted from his original landmark recordings:

Aboio, Mulato, Áfrico, Iô Sô, Sérgio Santos, Litoral e Interior and Rimanceiro.

All of his texts are composed by the prolific lyricist and poet, Paulo César Pinheiro, with whom Sérgio has been collaborating for nearly 35 years, co-authoring more than 250 compositions.

Sérgio Santos works adapted for choir above by RICHARD BOUKAS:

• Abertura, Áfrico, Sincretismo

Track 4 is a lyrical setting of Milton Nascimento's perennial classic, TRAVESSIA. 
 
These four choral adaptations were premiered in 2013 by the Queens College Vocal Ensemble under the direction of James John, Director of Choral Activities at the Aaron Copland School of Music.
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other Brazilian Choral

MPB 

• Senhorinha (Guinga)
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a cappella Scat Choros

• Odeon (Ernesto Nazareth)

• Remexendo (Radamés Gnattali)
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Choral directors and educators interested in performing/recording Boukas’s Brazilian arrangements and/or commissioning original works: CONTACT Richard Boukas. 

** Regentes de coro e professores/as ​que tenham interesse nas adaptações corais de Boukas e/ou em encomendar obras originais: 

Contatar RICHARD BOUKAS
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