Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.573c, Connecticut Historical S…

Performance by João Cerilo Monteiro, Eurico Semedo, & Jose Semedo

PerformerPerformed by John Monteiro Cape Verdean

PerformerPerformed by Eurico Semedo Cape Verdean

PerformerPerformed by Jose Semedo Cape Verdean

RecorderRecorded by Winifred Lambrecht American

Date1998 June 2

Mediumreformatted audio cassette tape

DimensionsDuration (side 1): 44 Minutes, 2 Seconds
Duration (side 2): 30 Minutes, 53 Seconds
Duration (total runtime): 1 Hours, 15 Minutes, 2 Seconds

ClassificationsInformation Artifacts

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionDigitized audio cassette tape recording of a performance by João Cerilo Monteiro on vocals and second accordion, Eurico Semedo on ferinho, and Jose Semedo on first accordion. The performance was recorded by Winnie Lambrecht at João Cerilo Monteiro's house in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on June 2, 1998, for the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.

Object number2015.196.573a-d

CopyrightIn Copyright

NotesSubject Note: Rhode Island state folklorist Winifred Lambrecht and CCHAP Director Lynne Williamson started the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 1997. As part of fieldwork to document potential artists for that program, Winifred Lambrecht recorded Cape Verdean musician John Monteiro (on vocals and accordion/gaeta) and his friends Eurico Semedo (playing ferinho), and José Semedo (on first accordion and vocals and ferinho) playing traditional music from Santiago, Cape Verde, their island of origin. The recording was done at John Monteiro’s house in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on June 2, 1998. The tape became part of the collection of CCHAP’s SNE Apprenticeship program documentation, now at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.

Biographical 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.

Subject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities, and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.

Biographical Note: Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program co-founder and Project Partner Winifred Lambrecht received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California (Berkeley). She trained as a documentary film maker in the late 1970s and has produced a number of films. From 1982 to 2008, she was founder and Director of the Folk/Traditional Arts Program at the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA). During her tenure at RISCA she curated the 1989 Festival of American Folklife at the Smithsonian, initiated the Folk Arts Apprenticeship and Folk Arts Fellowship Programs, organized a series called "The State and Future of Folk Arts in Southern New England,” and developed activities such as the Folk Arts section of the Providence Waterfront Festival and the Latin American Film Festival. Winnie’s collaborations include work in education with the Connecticut Commission on the Arts; video productions with the Institute for Community Research, the Vermont Folklife Center, the New England Foundation on the Arts, and many community groups; and curatorial services for the Centre Franco-Americain in Manchester, New Hampshire. Along with project partners from New England and New York, Winnie organized a major cultural exchange program with Quebec as part of the province’s 400th anniversary in 2008. She is a part-time faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design, currently teaching courses in non-western art and "Community-based Arts: Providence, the Global Village." She is the Rhode Island partner for the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, providing fieldwork and advice based on her in-depth knowledge of Rhode Island folk artists.

Additional audio, video, and photographic materials exist in the archive relating to these artists.

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.

Subject Terms