Ladama Ladama

LADAMA is a music ensemble of women musicians from across the Americas. They are Mafer Bandola (bandola llanera), Lara Klaus (percussion, drums), Daniela Serna (percussion) and Sara Lucas (voice, guitar). Together they combine the rhythms and traditional instrumentation of frevo and maracatu from Pernambuco, Brazil; joropo songs from the high plains of Venezuela; cumbia, gaita and champeta from the Colombian coast and contemporary strains of American pop, jazz and the avant-garde. Members of LADAMA specialize in, among other instruments, the bandola llanera from Venezuela, the tambor alegre from Colombia, and the pandeiro and zabumba from Northeast Brazil. Their performances include original compositions sung in Spanish, Portuguese and English, that combine disparate elements into a cohesive whole. The result is a sonic experience through which one can view the future as a world that communicates across continents and cultures, with sound and story. Their performances have been called “transformative” and “transporting”, and the audience is often asked to provide an equal level of participation regardless of the context and venue.
 
The women of LADAMA met during OneBeat, a fellowship that brings musicians from around the world to focus on collaboration-based compositions and social engagement. In order to continue their work together, LADAMA formed as a way to reach youth and empower women through music making in South America. The founding members, Lara, Daniela and Maria (LA-DA-MA) invited member Sara Lucas to join in order to reach North American communities and to promote cross-cultural collaboration in the Latin American diaspora. As activists, educators, producers and performers in their respective countries, their aim was to create deeper roots within their own communities as a music ensemble while weaving a larger, global web.
 
In the spring of 2015, LADAMA was awarded a $25,000 grant from The Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund to complete a two-month tour through South America. They were the first arts-based project to receive this award for grass-roots organizing on a global level. As a result they spent February and March in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela giving workshops to youth in an improvisatory and collaboration-based setting. Additionally, they held free performances for the public and residencies in each country to develop original work as a music ensemble. They are also the recipients of a Creative Exchange Residency Award- granted through The Performing Americas in partnership with RED and the National Performer’s Network. As part of this Creative Exchange Residency they performed and conducted cultural music exchanges with local frevo and maracatu artists, music ensembles and schools for three weeks at Paco do Frevo in Recife, Brazil .
 
Additionally, LADAMA is the recipient of a 2016 Brooklyn Arts Council grant for Local Arts Support and an Augustine Foundation Award to support their work at La Casita Comunal at Trinity Lutheran Church in Sunset Park. Recent engagements include RecBeat Festival in Recife, Brazil, Teatro Juares in Barquisimeto, Venezuela and Museo Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia.
 
Ladama official site

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