New York, USA - Renato Braz , renowned Brazilian singer-songwriter and the intertwined music of Bach and Brazil will greet summer's dawn, at Paul Winter's "Bach2Brazil: 11th Annual Summer Solstice Celebration" at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Sunset shows are Friday, June 18th and Saturday, June 19th at 7:30PM, and there is a sunrise show on June 19th at 4:30 am.

New this year, listeners will sit in concentric circles surrounding a revolving stage, beneath the domed center of the Cathedral. Seating is therefore more limited than in the past. The all-acoustic program will include new interpretations of Bach, Brazilian music, Bach played Brazilian style and Brazilian music in the style of Bach. Joining the Paul Winter Consort as special guests will be the Brazilian singer-songwriter Renato Braz, in his Northeastern U.S. debut, plus hand percussionist Glen Velez and Brazilian percussionist Cafe. This will only be the second performance of Renato Braz in the North America-- he just appeared at the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina over Memorial Day weekend.

Paul Winter first experienced Brazil during a month tour in 1962 as part of the Paul Winter Sextet's U.S. State Department tour of Latin America, which resulted in his first album, "Jazz Meets Bossa Nova" and a date to play the Kennedy White House. Paul lived in Rio during 1964 to 1965 and then recorded two other albums,Rio and Sound of Ipanema. With Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan, he is considered to have been the American pioneer of bossa nova in the U.S. and as such wrote the forward to the Billboard guide to Brazilian music.

While in Brazil in the early 60s, Paul Winter rediscovered his childhood roots with Bach through the music of the Brazilian composer Hector Villa-Lobos, who had written a series of pieces called Bachianas Brasileiras. He was inspired by Villa-Lobos' comment: "Bach is universal folk music; as such he is a mediator among races." Some of Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras will be featured in "Bach2Brazil."

Winter returned to his Brazilian roots in 1997 when he issued his recording Brazilian Days which featured many of his Brazilian musical friends, including guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, who put Winter in touch with Braz.


In contrast to the theatrics of Paul Winter's Winter Solstice Celebration at the Cathedral, the Summer Solstice Celebrations are purposefully simple, and emphasize the meditative beauty of the waxing or waning sunlight through stained-glass windows.

The Cathedral is located at Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street, Manhattan. Tickets are $20 general admission for the sunrise concert, $35 general admission at the sunset concerts and $50 for reserved seats at the sunset concerts. For more information, please call the Cathedral Box Office at 212-662-2133, CityTix at 212-581-1212 or visit http://www.livingmusic.com.