HISTORY
Los Sóngoros was founded in Burlington, Vermont, blending traditional Cuban and Brazilian rhythms.
We started as a small project learning from Cuban musician Raúl Guará, playing under an apple tree in Nowa Crosby’s house (local musician and luthier) back in 2020. After a year, Raúl left Vermont but not before successfully sowing the seed and love for Cuban music in us.
We kept practicing Cuban music, and, in 2022, Lucio Costa and Marina Martins, a Brazilian couple, joined the group and brought with them knowledge and passion for Brazilian music. We then started to bring samba, forró and other Brazilian rhythms for people to listen and dance.
Since 2022, we have had the fortune of being under the guidance of award-winning Cuban musician/composer maestro Carlos Placeres (based in Montreal), who has helped us go deeper into Cuban music, from learning to play traditional son montuno, son, guaracha and timba, to learning the feel which can only be transmitted by someone who grew up with this music around them. He also helps us work on our original material. You can find more about him on his website https://www.carlosplaceres.net/
From a small group learning and playing under an apple tree in a Vermont summer for no other reason than love for the music, we are now performing and sharing Cuban and Brazilian regularly for audiences in the area, still playing for the love of the music.
Los Sóngoros is actually an abbreviation of “Sóngoro cosongo”, an onomatopoeia for the sound of a drum, which appeared first as the title of a book of poems by Cuban poet and essayist Nicolas Guillén (you can read more about this here and here).
Our group currently has Nowa Crosby (Cuban tres, violin and vocals), Dwight Ritcher (drums, zabumba and vocals), Lucio Costa (guitar and vocals), Marina Martins (Brazilian percussion and vocals), Clarence Davis (congas), Eric Garland (bass and vocals) and Ramiro Barrantes (percussion and vocals).
We also have occasional visits from Collin Henkel (drums), Vickie Wacek (vocals) and Jon McBride (saxophone).
Thank you to all our past members, to all our teachers and mentors, and especially to all of you, people from all walks of life, that come to listen and dance!
Former BAND members
