Uepa Professor Participates in Duo Amazônico at Sorbonne University in Paris

Next Friday, the 13th, Urubatan de Castro, a professor at the State University of Pará (Uepa), will participate in a musical performance at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, France, alongside baritone Adnaldo Odair Souza. The Duo Amazônico, the name of the performance, concludes the Printemps Brésilien program, which has been taking place since March, featuring various events about Brazilian culture at the renowned public research university, often ranked among the best in the world.

Professor Urubatan explains that the selection came after submitting the presentation proposal to the French institution. “We will perform three concerts with music by Amazonian composers,” explains Urubatan, who said he is “anxious and a student every day!”

The novelty of the concert, according to the professor, is that “the pieces will, for the first time, include maracas and whistles from the Wai-Wai indigenous people, so we will incorporate indigenous references into classical music,” explains Urubatan.

In partnership with baritone Adnaldo Oldair Souza, works by composers Jayme Ovalle, Pedro Amorim, Waldemar Henrique, and Urubatan Castro himself will be presented, divided into moments of the duo's performance, interspersed with solo presentations by the pianist.

The Printemps Brésilien, after focusing on Quebec, Canada, and Germany, turns to Brazil and the culture of the country, particularly honored in France as part of the 2025 Intercultural Season. Over the past few months, performances, projections, lectures, and meetings with Brazilian artists and writers, such as Marcelo Rubens Paiva, author of the book “Ainda estou aqui,” which became a film of the same name and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film this year, bringing the statuette to the country in an unprecedented way.

Pianist, composer, and musicologist, Urubatan de Castro has been involved in the musical sphere for over 30 years. He has worked at the Institute of Arts at Unicamp; in the Department of Music at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA); Bomfim Conservatory (Portugal) and Kurhaus (Den Haag - Netherlands). He has won two first places in the Mapa Cultural Paulista Composition Contest (Campinas and Limeira) in 1998; won the Originality Composition Award in São Paulo in 1999, and in 2007, he received the Musical Creation Award from the Institute of Arts of Pará, with works for piano and four hands. He is a professor and a member of research groups at Uepa, and the musical director of the university's String Quartet.

Adnaldo Oldair Souza is a native of Belém do Pará, with a degree in Music Education from UFPA. He works as a public school teacher, choir conductor, and musical arranger. Adnaldo has technical training in Lyric Singing with a specialization in Musical Interpretation (UFPA) and a course in Music Education in Japan. He holds a master's degree in Musical Theory from Campbellsville University (USA) and in Creative Processes from UFPA. In 2016, he was the conductor of the Madrigal of the State University of Pará. As a baritone and conductor, he has performed at important festivals and cultural spaces in Brazil and abroad.

Text by Marília Jardim and Fernanda Martins