The Paulista singer and composer enchants all with her rhythm and sensual style.
By Luciana Savioli, from Montreal
She has a strong, sweet and resonant name. But coincidentally she has the name of a beach! And certainly, this coincidence is not restricted only to the similarity of the words. After all, like the paradisiacal Pernambuco beach, the singer and composer Maria Farinha has a suave swing, her own glow and produces wonderful music. But all of this began far from the sand and the sea – Maria was born in São Paulo and after one year in Canada, what she really misses is a good pizza on Sundays. Her interest in music began early. According to her, it wasn’t a conscious option, but simply “aptitude and passion” – which, as the years passed, kept growing up to the point where music became a basic necessity in her life.
She studied classic piano, then jazz and MPB With envious dedication. She studied at the renown Berklee College of Music in Boston USA, then graduated in Music at Rollins College in Florida and finally did her masters in Composition at York University in Toronto, where she is a teacher today. With an extensive academic curriculum, Maria states categorically that “a good artist never stops studying and researching”. After all, for her, good music comes from 70% perspiration and 30% inspiration – along with a good theoretical base and living in the musical medium, one should also “drink” music, of all genres, from classical to folkloric.
After completing all her studies, Maria began a solid career in the United States, where she was a singer for the band Yes Brazil and after recorded her first two CD’s – Planeta Banana and Endless Samba, in which she presented her own compositions along with songs by Tom Jobim, Edu Lobo and Chico Buarque. The album Endless Samba was considered a Brazilian jazz work of art by critics and specialized American magazines. Today, with over 20 years of experience as a Professional Musician, Maria lands on Canadian soil and along with her bringing her Bossa. Bossa defines and differentiates her at the same time – she sings jazz, mixes in a little Popular Brazilian Music, together with the sounds of Bossa Nova and this is what makes her style her own.
Nowadays, Maria Farinha is one of the distinguished names on the Canadian musical scene, where she plays to larger audiences each time. But at the end of it all, what does she like most about having traded Brazil for Canada? “I am fascinated with how seriously the musicians, establishments and the government of North America deal with this art form. Unfortunately, Brazil is still very far away from this reality”.
Last year Maria released her new album “Beijo de Amor”, which includes songs that she wrote and also songs from her favorite Brazilian composers and, next year, her fans and admirers will be able to hear another project of hers, a Brazilian music CD. “I am still at its premature stages. I still have a lot of things to do. But I think that with this “good music” crisis that exists today, where everything is produced by machines, good musicians are a species in extinction”, concludes Maria.
To learn more about Maria Farinha please visit mariaffarinha.com
