Brazilian Choro
For 19 years, Choro das 3 was a family band formed by the three sisters: Corina (flute and piccolo), Lia (7 string guitar), Elisa (mandolin, clarinet, banjo, piano and accordion) and their late father Eduardo (pandeiro), who tragically succumbed to COVID-19 in 2021.
Everything started with a volunteer teacher. In Brazil schools don’t have a music program and kids are not usually exposed to music in school. Corina was 7 years old, learning how to read and write in a public school in the town of her birth, Porto Feliz.
So, on the next year, Corina started on the recorder and Eduardo was very excited about it and bought a pandeiro to have fun with her at home playing some music together.
Corina ended up choosing the flute, thanks to an album by Altamiro Carrilho. The youngest sisters Lia and Elisa wanted to be part of that musical games and ended up choosing their instruments too. Lia chose the acoustic guitar (a 6 string back then) and Elisa asked in a letter to Santa Claus a “bandolinho”.
Knowing that São Paulo has a variety of great Choro musicians, the family started to attend the weekly choro jams there, so the sisters could learn the style from the masters.
On these jam sessions in São Paulo, the family started to be noticed. It wasn’t common to see a family, especially with three little girls in those environments. This music was mainly played by older men.
Invitations for TV and Radio shows started to come in and their first concert was booked by the United States Consulate in São Paulo.
The family chose the name “Balaio de Gato” (something like a Basket of Cats), that later became “Choro das 3” before they released their first album, Meu Brasil Brasileiro.
Meu Brasil Brasileiro was released by Som Livre, a major label in 2008. It took Choro das 3 to the most prestigious TV shows in Brazil resulted in an award of Best Group of the Year, by the São Paulo Critics Association.
Charo das 3 has since released 11 albums, had 8 international tours and their audience on the internet continues to grow.