The festive sounds of samba music are coming to the Harrison Township Historical Society’s Richwood Academy Cultural Center on Sunday, March 13 at 3 p.m. Rowan University’s professor of percussion, Fabio Oliveira, along with an ensemble of professional Brazilian musicians from Philadelphia and New York City, will fill the historic 1870 schoolhouse with the traditional and exciting rhythms of their homeland.
Born in the capital, Brasilia, Oliveira is an internationally-known recording artist and scholar. Although he came to the United States with his family when he was 2 years old, he has studied and worked in both America and Brazil, where he established a community of percussionists at the Universidade Federal de Goiás. He also served as a percussion judge and consultant to the Samba Carnival Parades in Sâo Paolo. He joined the Rowan faculty in 2019.
“When the Society acquired Richwood Academy, we decided to restore the building’s original purpose – to make it once again a center for education for the entire community,” said the society’s project coordinator James Turk. “We are proud to be able to present such diverse offerings, free of charge.”
The society’s arts and history programs are made possible in part by funding from the Gloucester County Cultural and Heritage Commission at Rowan College of South Jersey in partnership with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State and the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey Historical Commission/Department of State.
The Richwood Academy Cultural Center is located at 836 Lambs Road in Richwood, N.J. Information and free tickets for this event are available by calling 856-478-4949 or at harrisonhistorical.com and the society’s public Facebook page. The program will also be live-streamed and archived on Facebook.
