Marcia Castro (Brasil)

In 2012, four years after her debut CD, Pecadinho, Brazilian singer Marcia Castro released the second album of her career, De Ps no Cho (Feet on the Ground).  Between these releases, a series of events have served to echo the name of the artist and expanded the expectation surrounding her new work.  Marcia was nominated "Best Pop-Rock Singer" in the TIM/2008 Awards (along side Fernanda Takai and Vanessa da Mata, two of Brazil's biggest pop singers ), performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, accompanied the Argentine Mercedes Sosa on her last tour, including dates in Brazil, Germany, Italy and Israel, and had her production of the track Queda (Crush) included in the soundtrack of Globo Television's soap opera Ciranda de Pedra. Marcia has also recorded and worked on projects with some of Brazil's greatest music icons, including Gilberto Gil, Tom Z, Moraes Moreira, Luiz Melodia and Jards Macal, to name a few. Marcia is restless and her dynamism is reflected in the quantity and diversity of partnerships that she undertakes as well as in the easiness with which she dives into different genres, always stamping her identity in a way that surprises critics and audiences. A graduate from the School of Music of the Federal University of Bahia, she started performing at age 16. Moving to So Paulo in 2008, she seems to have devoured the cosmopolitan character of the city. Beyond So Paulo, she has been an artist resident in East Timor, has toured in Turkey, and created the project Pipoca Moderna, which promotes artistic exchange among artists from different Brazilian states (names like Gilberto Gil, Zeca Baleiro, Luiz Melodia, Mart'nlia, Emicida, Paulinho Boca de Cantor, Mariana Aydar and Rita Ribeiro have participated) and even artists from abroad (as in the case of Cape Verdean, Mayra Andrade) .

On her latest CD, De Ps no Cho, she mixes a bold and unique repertoire that goes from the classic Preta Pretinha from Novos Baianos to rare pieces excavated during her music research, such as Catedral do Inferno by Cartola and Hermnio Bello de Carvalho, (previously recorded only by singer Marlene). The album, produced by Guilherme Kastrup, Rovilson Pascoal and Marcia herself, also brings compositions from Tom Z , Gilberto Gil, Gonzaguinha, Rita Lee, and contemporary artists such as Otto and Luciano Salvador Bahia, among others. Bahian conductor Letieres Leite, the name behind praised Orkestra Rumpilezz, is responsible for the woodwind arrangements on fours tracks. Among the special guests are the prominent names of new Brazilian music, such as Hlio Flanders (from the Cuiaban band, Vanguart), guitar player Kiko Dinuccif from So Paulo, Bahian Marcela Bellas, and Thalma de Freitas from Rio de Janeiro; a respectable team of artists who, like Marcia herself, represent the most promising among the young crowd in the Brazilian music scene.

In 2013, sponsored by the Natura Musical project, the singer toured six cities in Brazil, giving her the opportunity to take her show for the first time to Belem, Brasilia and Vitoria da Conquista, provoking great public and media impact.

In March of 2014, the singer will release her third album, Das Coisas Que Surgem (Of The Things that Arise), produced by Paulo Gui Amabis.  Amabis, who has also been musical director on albums for singer Cu, Rodrigo Campos, besides being one of the biggest composers of film scores in the country. The disc moves through the universe of Brazilian music, representing its contemporary production through the fusion of sounds derived from the musical experimentation of both the singer and the music director. The sound builds up a scenario with plenty of warm basses and analog tones, where the presence of the human hand is essential to the organic nature of the sound. A sound which is mixed with samples taken from vintage vinyl, functioning as living elements, drawing landscapes produced by these sonorous tones, the conceptual theme of the work. The new CD features guest musician Jacques Morelenbaum and Cape Verdean singer Mayra Andrade.