Traveling 20 hours from Goiás, Brazil to Laramie for a one night only performance is out of the ordinary for a normal musician. For Dr. Carlos Costa, director of piano and conducting at Universidade Federal de Goiás, this is all part of a unique music exchange program between the University of Wyoming (UW) and his university.
Music faculty from UW traveled to Brazil earlier in the year to work with the students there. And recently, Costa flew to Laramie to play piano with the University of Wyoming Symphony Orchestra (UWSO). He has visited Laramie before as a guest artist and conductor, but never as a concerto soloist.
“I love your orchestra. I have conducted the orchestra three times. I always did Brazilian pieces there [and], it was a lot of fun. People are very serious, very talented. And the hall is wonderful.” Costa said.
But on November 16, Costa played a Brazilian piece called “Concertino for Piano and Chamber Orchestra” by M. Camaro Guarnieri as a solo pianist. Guarnieri was a professor at Universidade Federal de Goiás. Costa learned this piece to play with the UWSO but will later play the same piece with his orchestra back in Brazil. Next summer, a group of UW music students will travel to Brazil to perform orchestral chamber music to continue the exchange.
This was the last concert of the UWSO season, but there will be a joint holiday concert with the Wind Symphony and choirs on Dec. 9 and 10.
