Pollinators / Polinizadores brings together cellist Dave Haughey (Paul Winter Consort) , pianist Henrique Eisenmann (Juilliard, Paul Winter Consort), and percussionist Rogério Boccato (Manhattan School of Music, John Patitucci) for a weekend of concerts, workshops, and musical exchange. Connected by years of movement between Brazil and the United States, these three musicians bring different musical backgrounds and experiences to a project built around improvisation, interaction, and the exchange of ideas. Like pollinators moving between environments, musicians pick up new influences while contributing their own to the people and places around them. Brazilian music is an important part of that shared history, but Pollinators reaches beyond any single tradition, drawing on the many musical communities the three have encountered along the way.
Over four events, that idea takes a different form each time. Friday begins with a jazz outreach program at Northampton High School through the Northampton Jazz Festival's Jazz Artists in the Schools program, followed Saturday by a public benefit concert at Edwards Church's Music in the Crossroads concert Series. On Sunday morning at the Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity, the trio leads an interactive workshop exploring improvisation, listening, and musical exchange, before closing the weekend Sunday evening with a special Cello & Chocolate sound bath event combining the trio’s music in an improvised experience featuring chocolate pairing from Ana Bandeira Chocolates. Together, the four events offer different ways to experience the same central idea: music developing through encounter, exchange, and collaboration.