Guilherme Gonçalves

Born in Rio de Janeiro, he took his first drum lessons in 1975, at the age of 12, with João Batista das Chagas (Sut). Between 1977 and 1982, he studied at the Villa-Lobos Music School with Edgard Nunes Rocca (Bituca). During this period he also took classes with Pascoal Meirelles, Emilio Gama and Claudio Caribé. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA, in 1986. In Boston he also studied drums with Alan Dawson and Gary Chaffee and symphonic percussion with Dean Anderson.

In the US he played with several jazz and Latin music groups alongside musicians such as saxophonists Jim Odgren, Alan Chase and John Laporta, vibraphonist Victor Mendoza, bassists Oscar Stagnaro and Kai Eckharrdt, pianist Javier Perzez Saco among others. Back in Brazil, he performed with the Orquestras Sinfônica Nacional, Teatro Municipal, Pró-Música do Rio de Janeiro and Sinfônica do Paraná. He performed at the 1989 and 1993 Contemporary Music Festival.

As a drummer, he played with Orquestra Tabajaras, Rio Jazz Orchestra, Rio Dixieland Jazz Band, Orquestra do Conservatório de MPB de Curitiba, with saphonists Juarez Araujo and Idriss Boudrioua, in Duo with Pascoal Meirelles, with The Ileana Carneiro Jazz Trio, Garganta Profunda group, with the singers, Leo Jaime, Vanessa Rangel Thais Mota, José Alexandre and Bibi Ferreira, with the pianists Glauton Campelo and Marvio Ciribelli, with the Vibraphonist Michael Carney, guitarist Alexandre Carvalho, trumpeter Chico Oliveira. Since 2005 he has been performing with his Jazz Group in the Rio de Janeiro music scene.

He has been a percussion teacher at the Villa-Lobos Music School in Rio de Janeiro since 1986. In 1994, he implemented the drum and percussion course at the Conservatory of Brazilian Popular Music in Curitiba, where he taught until 2001. In 1999, Guilherme directed the percussion course at State University of Rio de Janeiro - UERJ where in 2000 he was coordinator of the 1st UERJ Percussion Festival.

Still in the educational area, he participated in several courses and workshops in Brazil, especially the Estúdio Ópera de Maringá - PR, the MPB Workshop in Itajaí - SC, and the Music Workshops in Curitiba between 1994 and 2000, where in 1999, he coordinated the 1st Meeting of Popular Percussion in Curitiba. Abroad, he has featured in clinics at Berklee College of Music in Boston, SAMBLA in Los Angeles, Drummers Collective in New York and workshops in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Guilherme has published six books: O Ritmos Pelas Subdivisãos with Edgard Rocca, O Batuque Carioca in partnership with Mestre Odilon Costa, O Tambor Volumes 1 and 2, Ritmos Volume 1 and No Compasso do Samba.

He was a member for 11 years (1998-2009) of the Escola de Samba Acadêmicos do Grande Rio. Between 2000 and 2006 he was also responsible for the Agogôs section of the Estácio de Sá Samba School. A member of the composers wing of GRESEP de Mangueira, he is co-author of the samba plot for the 2004 carnival.

In 2003, he created the Espaço Rio Percussion Produções, with the aim of disseminating and teaching the various aspects of popular, erudite and contemporary percussion, which welcomes students from Brazil and the world through the Rio Percussion Project, a project that teaches foreigners a little of Brazilian popular music.

He acted as Judge of the Carnival in three editions (2006, 2007 and 2008) of the parades of the Escolas de Sambas de Vitória / ES and Rio de Janeiro parade. Between 2016 and 2019 he was a columnist for the website CARNAVALESCO.

He is also the author and musical director of the show A Febre do Samba, which tells the story of the samba plot, having performed in several theaters in the state of Rio de Janeiro since 2010 and has been watched by more than forty thousand people. In 2014, he wrote and directed the short film BATUQUE for The World Cup in Brazil In 2018 he launched the course O Batuque Carioca OnLine with more than 10 hours of recordings and had the participation of 40 percussionists.