"Carlos is a great teacher and is very adept at conveying the hardest thing to teach, the spirit of samba. As Musical Director of the Festival Cavalcade he managed to teach four sambas and samba reggae tunes to over 100 musicians, many of who had never played together before, in just two days!

We look forward to working with Carlos again soon, very soon."

Stuart Thomas
Edinburgh Samba School Festival Cavalcade Organiser 2004
25 January 2005

"Carlos here are some quotes from feedback forms:

“Carlos’s teaching was excellent: I learned a lot more about the concept of samba.”

“Carlos was brilliant.”

“I’m happy to see many people from many different places all enjoying samba together.”

“Watch out pipe bands, brass bands, samba’s here.”

“I’m definitely going to join a samba school now.”

Best regards,"

Stuart Thomas
Edinburgh Samba School Festival Cavalcade Organiser 2004
25 January 2005

Hi everyone

Here is the latest update from 'Encontro Atlantico 04', the 3 day samba event taking place in St. Ives Cornwall from Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th September 2004.

Our big news is that we are honoured and delighted that Carlos Ferreira from G.R.E.S. Unidos de Melbourne (Melbourne Samba School), Australia, who is over in Europe this summer, will be visiting the delectable Duchy and will be running 2 x 2 hour workshops on Saturday 4th September. Here are some more details:

The Carlos Ferreira Experience
Founder of the Melbourne Samba School - melsamba.com - Rio born Carlos Ferreira brings the passion and feel of a true Carioca to these energetic and inspiring workshops. Open to all levels, Carlos uses his unorthodox teaching style to pass on the joy and colour of Brazilian music.

Carlos has also agreed to lead the World Record Attempt on Sunday 5th September. Carlos is a most fitting Mestre for us, being a true Carioca (from Rio), and we are thrilled to be able to benefit from his vast experience.

Looking forward to meeting lots of new sambistas in September !

Best regards,

Andy Bilham
Co-Organiser - Guinness Book of Records World Record Attempt - St. Ives, Cornwall, England
15 July 2004

Hi Carlos and Amanda,

I think you may be back in Australia by the time you receive this - hope you had a good trip back home, and all is well with you both.

This is really just a HUGE THANK YOU for all you did for us on your recent trip to Cornwall. Your workshops are still being talked about with enthusiasm, and your splendid contribution to our participation in the World Record Attempt was awesome!!!

It was a real pleasure to meet you both, and I sincerely hope that we will meet again soon, maybe next Summer. Please keep me up to date with your plans and we would love to see you back in the Westcountry.

All our best regards and love to you both

Andy Bilham
Co-Organiser - Guinness Book of Records World Record Attempt - St. Ives, Cornwall, England
23 September 2004

Hi Carlos

Just checked out your pictures of the WRA in St. Ives - brought back many happy memories of a great
weekend, only made possible by your professionalism, adaptability and passion for samba. Thanks you
so very much for your fantastic workshops, and the way you painlessly brought over 400 drummers
together to play 'Aquarela Brasiliera' in about 20 minutes!! What an achievement!

We are looking forward to meeting you again next Summer - I very much hope you can find the time to
fit in another trip down here to the South West, we would love to work with you again.

Very best wishes to you and Mandy, and thanks for all you did once again

Best regards\

Andy Bilham
Co-Organiser - Guinness Book of Records World Record Attempt - St. Ives, Cornwall, England
22 October 2004

Thank you thank you thank you to all you wonderful sambistas that helped to make the Encontro Atlantico 2004 a success.

I'd like to thank everyone by name, but special thanks must go to Fred Turuka and Carlos Ferreira for pulling the mass performance together.

The Carlos Ferreira Experience lived up to its name (in spades).

The number for our contribution to the World Record is (unoficially) 410.

We must do it again sometime !!

Love and best wishes to you all.

Mike Cowley
Co-Organiser - Guinness Book of Records World Record Attempt - St. Ives, Cornwall, England
23 September 2004

Dear Carlos,

Thank you so much for the wonderful samba workshop you ran recently at Birmingham Conservatoire. All the students involved enjoyed the experience and learnt a huge amount in a short space of time. Besides learning new techniques and rythms, the most positive aspect of the workshop was experiencing the feel of Brazilian samba. The type of samba played in England differs greatly from the styles that you demonstrated. It was great to explore a new approach and has prompted a fresh perspective for the future of our small bateria. In particular, some of the group are desperate to start including singing over the rhythms.

Ou gratitude goes out to you for staying a further ninety minutes after the official workshop time to record rhythms with the participants. Such actions are above and beyond the call of duty and all the students really appreciate it. Furthermore, a number of students have commented favourably about the relaxed way the workshop was run. Although some of the rhythms played were quite challenging, the atmosphere was friendly and no-one felt intimidated or out of their depth.

I wish you all the best for the future and hope that when you next return to England you would be willing to run another samba workshop. Thank you once again !

Yours sincerely,

Hi Carlos

First of all, thanks for a great workshop in Brighton. To jog your memory, I did the intermediate Brazilian Grooves workshop on the Saturday morning and played the agogo bells (nobody else did!).

I look forward to hearing from you and hope you're enjoying your time over here.

Jenny
on behalf of the Manchester School of Samba
England
2 June 2004

Hallo again Carlos

We would like to thank you for last Sunday's workshop. We thought it was quite educative and interesting. Also by the way you teach, you give everyone a possibility to grow in they´re own pace.

Thanks to your healthy attitude towards music in general and samba in particular.

Carlos, it was really nice to get to know you and I really hope to see you again when you get back to Sweden next year.

Good luck to you both and until next time!

Carlos, my friend,

Your presence in the West End Festival here in Glasgow was brilliant. Not only due to your amazing capacity of bring "tuc,tac,bum" sounds from an instrument but also the shinning of your personality, the passion you live music.

It was a pleasure meeting you!

Luciano Cesar Alakija (Baiano de Salvador)
Glasgow - Scotland
14 June 2004

Hi Carlos,

Thanks again for coming to Oxford. We had a great day and I'm sure Sol Samba will benefit from it. If you're ever back in town give us a call,
as we'd love to have you back for another day.

Thanks again and hopefully we'll see you and Mandy again sometime.

Cheers,

Steve Hadgkiss
RAW Samba
Shanklin, Isle of Wight - England
27 June 2004

Just had an exciting weekend of samba with Carlos in Edinburgh, great fun, lovely sounds, practising, partying and parading, then picnicking. Brilliant!

A thousand thanks to The Edinburgh Samba School and Carlos. Can you come back next year please.


June Hay
Edinburgh Samba School
Scotland
8 August 2004

Hi Carlos!

I was one of your cortador players at the back on the Saturday morning workshop in Brighton. I enjoyed it very much, thankyou! You have a great teaching style and you were very encouraging, which was refreshing after the experience of being taught by some other drum teachers! So I say keep it up, the pleasure is paramount and though we were all a bit slow to cheer (!) I'M SURE EVERYONE ENJOYED IT!!

Thanks again,

I have spoken to the organisation which supports our band RAW Samba, regarding the possibility of you running a workshop here on the Isle of Wight.

Our Maestro is very keen for you to come, especially after I told him how good your Brighton workshop was.

Thanks again for a fantastic workshop and I sincerely hope we will see you here soon!!!

YYYYEEEEAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!

Dave Cotton
RAW Samba
Isle of Wight - England
27 May 2004

It was such a pleasure to meet you and have the privelege to play with you at several workshops and gigs over the last few months. You helped me enorously in my understanding of the feeling of Samba, thank you.

The summer of 2004 in Scotland was all the sunnier with yourself bringing a touch of Rio to our corner of the world. I have been totally hooked into the full thing and just wish every gig was as good as the Edinburgh Festival. A bit more tution and the 150 or so sambistas there that day, and I feel we could bring Samba to the main stream over here.

Hopefully one day we will play again, we will endeavour to bring the Beats of Brazil to bonny Scotland for the triumphant return of the two of you.

Missing you already.

John Murphy
Beats of Brazil
Whitburn
Scotland
20 September 2004