History of the GroupOur Band History...
... started as many other things during the carnival season of Cologne. Nowadays, our band consists of 26 people from which a core, namely the parents of at those times kindergarten kids, organised a carnival celebration in 1993. The following year these parents started taking part, masqueraded according to a certain motto, in the so-called Schull- und Veedelszoch (School and District Walks) in Cologne carnival. Afterwards our fate was sealed:
Music belongs to us and the carnival season!
We played Samba three seasons long until our musical teacher Alfonso Garrido fascinated us with his enthusiasm for Maracatu. In 2001, for the first time, we spent two weeks during the Carnival in Recife/Brasil and kept ourselves busy with the complex rhythms, dances and the history of this ancient music. The fascination and energy of the rhythms and the exchange with the people were the cause for our periodical travels to Brasil.
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It is our ambition to give back what we received: we want to support non-profit-making organisations that generate cultural work in order to help infants and children during their adolescence. Therefore, our group has changed the band into a charitable association in 2007 as this enables us to lead on our initial idea of cultural exchange officially:
Maracatu Colonia e.V.
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Concrete projects are:
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• financial support of cultural organisations on site
• inviting Brasilian groups/teachers to Cologne for cultural exchange
• being cultural messengers for people from Recife
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