Thalita Santos
Thalita is a world renowned samba percussionist and teacher whos specialism is the Tamborim. As well as being the tamborim director at Vila Isabel and drummer with Viradouro samba schools you can also see her playing surdo with her group Um Amô. She has a well-developed teaching technique, both on and offline, which is used by hundreds of students the world over. Her Tamborim focused YouTube channel has around 60k subscribers and is a reference for players of all levels.
Gabriel Lopes
Gabriel is a respected percussionist, composer and samba school bateria researcher. He’s been playing with Rio’s most renowned carnival Bloco, Monobloco for 22 years and has been a tutor at their percussion classes in Rio for the past 10 years.
As a guitarist, he has released many of his own compositions. Notably, Gabriel composed and performed his own entry for Mangueira, the most prestigious samba school in Rio. To date, he has released three books about samba schools’ baterias. Gabriel also runs a website and YouTube channel where he shares his research on the subject
J P Courtney
Multi percussionist, arranger, director and course organiser from Ireland. He’s the owner of J P Percussion Ltd and has been specialising in Brazilian percussion since 1999.
Well-known for his drumming skills and dynamic teaching ability, J P is always a reliable addition to any workshop. He is the musical director of Carnaval Transatlântico, the first non Brazilian based group to perform in the official Rio street carnival. J P is also known for his vast list of connections in the percussion scene in Rio and his online shop of quality Brazilian percussion instruments.