Joao Cerilo Monteiro and Eurico Semedo
SubjectPortrait of
John Monteiro
Cape Verdean
SubjectPortrait of
Eurico Semedo
Cape Verdean
PhotographerPhotographed by
Lynne Williamson
Date2008 June
Mediumborn digital images
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
DescriptionPhotographs of Joao Cerilo Monteiro playing accordion and Eurico Semedo playing ferinho. Place of performance is not known.
Object number2015.196.388.1-.5
CopyrightCopyright Held By Lynne Williamson
NotesBiographical Note: John Pereira Monteiro, stage name João Cerilo and also known as “Mr. Po D’Terra,” is a Cape Verdean musician originally from the island of Santiago. He lived and worked in Rhode Island for many years, where he performed both traditional and creative synthesizer-driven versions of Cape Verdean music and dance forms such as funaná, tchabeta, and batuku in clubs and community settings. João Cerilo, who plays gaeta, a Cape Verdean accordion, has produced several albums from 1981 to 2015. His performances have taken place at the Working Waterfront Festival in New Bedford MA, Accordion Festivals in Texas and New York, Cape Verdean Independence Day at Fox Point RI, the Lowell Folk Festival in MA in 2008, Cape Verdean clubs and restaurants in New England, and internationally. He formed a traditional music group known as Pilon Batuku, featuring his cousins Eurico and Jose Semedo playing ferinho, a scraped iron stick that is often heard in Cape Verdean music. Pilon Batuku often included dance performances by New Bedford-based Cape Verdean dancer Maria Rodrigues. Lynne Williamson of CCHAP and folklorist colleague Winifred Lambrecht encouraged João’s traditional music, recording him and including him in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program four times, to collaborate and teach Eurico and José Semedo funaná and batuku, as well as the Waterbury dance group Warm Heart, and the Norwich dance group Estrellas, from 1998-2001 and 2006-2007. John Pereira Monteiro lives in Assomada, Cabo Verde.Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
On View
Not on view
John Monteiro
2005 and 2008
John Monteiro
2005 June 19
