Kurumikidz

About Kurumikidz

Kurumikidz is about understanding and learning about the world around us through MUSIC.

Kurumikidz is a small educational group whose team is made up of teachers and musicians from both Brazil and the U.K. Although we are not a charity, we have several charitable organizations interested in our work, including the Prince's Rainforest Project and Survival International.

Kurumi (Curumim) means child in Tupi Guarani - language family spoken by indigenous forest people in the Amazon Region.

Kurumikidz first music project is about the Amazon Rainforest!

Coordinators

• Ana Losekann

  

  Brazilian teacher & singer, Ana Losekann is an experienced educator who has taught in Brazil, in Israel and in the UK. In addition to this, she has also worked at Brazilian universities and at King's College, London.

  Ana has always incorporated music and art in class as important tools for teaching & learning. She believes learning should be fun and enjoyable and she is delighted to be part of a project that is not only educational but has a contagious vibe! She intends to use her know-how to teach creatively about Brazil.

  Ana also brings some music experience from outside the classroom, as she has recorded for a soap opera in 1998 as well as gigs and backing vocal jobs for Cds.

• Caroline Chan

  

  Caroline Chan, British children's musician, she has worked with music for children for over twenty years, singing and playing guitar. The element of motivation was Oliver, her son, who was diagnosed with Autism. When she found how well he responded to music, she became more and more involved with it.

  Caroline runs her own music sessions for pre-school children in North London. In recent years she has teamed up with Neal Whitmore, and they have co-produced 3 children's CDs, (a mixture of original compositions as well as well loved songs from their childhood), and their website is www.greenmeansgo.co.uk.

  Caroline has also worked with music in Nurseries, Playgroups, Special Needs Schools, main stream schools and more recently she has become involved with music for the elderly. Music is a wonderful way of communicating and sharing.

Creative Team

• Illustration and games

  Alex Paiva

  

  Alex Paiva, Brazilian, born in São Paulo. From drawing funny caricatures of school mates and teachers to making more sophisticated pieces, Alex has always had a great passion for drawing. He graduated in Graphic Design at UNESP-SP in 1998.

  Alex is the KURUMIKIDZ illustrator and he is also a partner in designing the KURUMIKIDZ games.

  He is also an enthusiastic musician, taking piano and classical Indi music studies which give him more support on his creative process.

  Alex has lived and worked in London for many years and he has just moved back to São Paulo.

• Recordings and music production

  Neal Whitmore

  

  Neal Whitmore is a musician & producer/arranger for KURUMIKIDZ. In the past he was the guitarrist with the British band Sigue Sigue Sputinik and nowadays he devotes some of his time to writing & recording music for children. Neal and Caroline Chan also formed a parallel music project in 2004 called Green Means Go www.greenmeansgo.co.uk with the motto to produce "real music for kids". They have produced 3 cds so far: A Day at the Seaside, A Day on the Farm, A Day in the Jungle.

• Percussion, recordings and workshops

  Pedro Campolina

  

  Brazilian professional percussionist and capoeira teacher, Pedro Campolina has great experience teaching percussion and capoeira to children in schools since 2003. Pedro has already recorded with Max Coe and Planet Rescue at BBC Studio Maida Vale, and he has played at the Brazilian film recording That Samba Thing in London. Pedro runs a school of Capoeira at London School of Economics. He is also part of a music group called Pé-de-Jurema. Pedro has since joined the group KURUMIKIDZ because he shares the same passion to teach eco-music through the rich musical diversity of Brazil, such as Ciranda, Forró, Maracatu, Samba-de-roda and Afoxé.
  www.londoncapoeira.co.uk
  www.myspace.com/pedejurema

• Percussion, Recording and Workshops

  Alua Nascimento

  

  Alua Nascimento is a musician, teacher and capoeirista who studied classical percussion at Sao Paulo Music School and popular percussion and vibraphone at Sao Paulo Music University. He has lived in London since 2006 and has toured in Portugal, Austria, Poland, Italy, Holland, Spain, Germany. He is a well-known performer in Brazil and played a concert with the Waura Indians of Xingu in 2005. His first public performance was at the age of 8, having learnt percussion from his father, the renowned Brazilian percussionist Dinho Nascimento.

• Musician

  Chico Chagas

  

  Chico Chagas, Brazilian, musician, composer, producer, accordeonist and pianist. Chico is internationally renowned in the world of Jazz and Bossa Nova. In the UK he plays with Dave O’Higgins and many others. Chico has also composed and played many songs for soaps for TV Globo in Brazil. Chico is originally from the Amazon region and he has composed the ANT song for the KURUMIKIDZ group. For more information about Chico Chagas, visit the website:
  www.myspace.com/chicochagas