RICARDO PARREIRA & FRIENDS

fado
Lisbon, Portugal, and Northeastern United States

This performance is made possible with the support of the Saab Family Foundation

Fado emerged from the cafés in the tight streets and working-class neighborhoods of Lisbon, but there’s a calm, solemn tone that emerges from the music. Not far from Lisbon in Paço de Arcos, Ricardo Parreira grew up steeped in the fado tradition, learning guitarra Portuguesa from his father, renowned musician and scholar António Parreira. Ricardo Parreira has toured internationally with fadistas, and brings his deep knowledge to an ensemble of Portuguese Americans singers and musicians, performing alongside Alison Dasilva, Pedro Botas, and Viriato Ferreira.

Translated to English as “fate” or “destiny,” fado music can’t be separated from saudade, a word untranslatable to English, but is like nostalgia, a feeling of longing, yearning for people and places that are gone and may never be seen again. Emerging as early as the 1820s, fado has been described by listeners as melancholy, wild, raw, and passionate, but it is a practiced and intricate expression of hundreds of years of Portuguese musical tradition. A tradition of improvisation has helped keep fado fresh and relevant for over 200 years. The guitarra Portuguesa, a twelve-string lute with a teardrop-shaped body, is used to pluck melodies, while the viola do fado, similar to a classical guitar, plays a strummed accompaniment. On top of the instrumentation, the fadista adds the emotion-filled lyrics. 

Ricardo Parreira trained at the National Conservatory of Music in Portugal; while there, he began performing in countless fado houses in Lisbon. He released his first album in 2007, a solo project that explored the history of the guitarra Portuguesa in fado, and went on to release two more albums with traditional fado ensembles. Over the last two decades, he has performed across Portugal and the world. While he continues to carry on the fado tradition in his performances and teaching at the Fado Museum in Lisbon, he has also collaborated with the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, as well as classical and pop musicians. 

The Northeastern United States is home to vibrant Portuguese-American communities, particularly in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, and U.S.-based musicians contribute to fado nationally and internationally. Parreira’s ensemble includes Alison Dasilva, an emerging fadista who is carrying on the tradition of fado in New England. Dasilva is from Lowell and won the best New Talent Award at the 2024 International Portuguese Music Awards and performs fado locally and nationally. Fadista Pedro Botas, born in Praia de Mira, Portugal, and now based in Newark, New Jersey, has been performing fado throughout the Northeast for over 15 years. His repertoire evokes the sights and sounds of Lisbon. Viola player Viriato Ferreira joins Ricardo Parreira in accompanying these singers. He is from the island of Saint Michael in the Azores and now resides in Rumford, Rhode Island. For more than 40 years, he has been a mainstay of the U.S. fado community, performing throughout the country and for countless fado singers and musicians stateside. Together, this ensemble is sure to bring the sounds of Portugal to Lowell audiences. 

Artist website and social media:

facebook.com/RicardoParreiraPT

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