Maria Rita Stumpf

Born in the mountains of Rio Grande do Sul (South of Brazil), a region of great natural beauty known as Aparados da Serra, Maria Rita lived in the countryside her first 6 years. She afterwards moved with her family to the city of Caxias do Sul. At the age of 16 she relocated to Porto Alegre, capital of her native state, to continue her studies. She graduated in Journalism at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul where she also studied Music. During this period Maria Rita performed in several music festivals and contests, having received an award for the song Cântico Brasileiro No 3 (Kamaiurá) at the 2nd edition of the Musicanto Festival.

She toured her native state with shows such as Rictus (1980), Anjo Negro (1983) and Brasileira (1984). She moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1985 under the wings of Bossa Nova master pianist Luiz Eça, with whom she worked until his passing in 1992. With guitarist João de Aquino she did one of her first successful shows in Rio, performed at the Sidney Miller Hall while working in cultural events production. She later opened a PR and Agency office specializing in culture and entertainment, Antares, which came to stand out in the South American cultural market and is still active.

In 1987 she recorded LP Brasileira with Ricardo Bordini, Luiz Eça and the group Uaktí. In 1988 she did a promoting tour of the main Brazilian capital cities. This work earned her a nomination as Female Revelation Artist of the Year at the 1989 Sharp Music Award (a Grammy-like award for Brazilian artists).

Her 1993 CD Mapa das Nuvens (Map of the Clouds) was recorded in collaboration with renowned Brazilian musicians such as Marcos Suzano, Danilo Caymmi, Farlley Derze, Lui Coimbra, André Santos, Eduardo Neves, while preserving a couple of her previous tracks with Luiz Eça and the group Uaktí. It was a time when the vinyl was sharply replaced by the CD. Maria Rita wrote music to eight poems by Mario Quintana, one of the greatest poets in Portuguese language, having recorded two of them in the album: “Canção da Garoa (Song of the Light Rain) and “Canção de Barco e de Olvido (Song of the Boat and of the Forgotten). She promoted the CD touring a series of theaters in Rio de Janeiro, highlighting the iconic Jazzmania Club. She also performed in collaboration with outstanding names of the Brazilian scene including Jards Macalé, Nelson Angelo, Laudir de Oliveira and Totonho Villeroy, to name a few.

As of 1993 she decided to focus on her arts agency having promoted in Brazil and South America a great deal of arts scene names of worldwide fame.

30 years later ...

"I started to compose almost without realizing it when I was 14 years old. I would write poems and feel the sounds around them. I listened to all kinds of music inspired by my parents since I was little, from rancheira (country music from the South) to Beethoven. In the place I was born the environment was hostile to the female artistic creation, but I did not pay much attention to this fact. The sonic atmosphere of peoples and places, the suffering of whites, indigenous and black people as well as their delight was what attracted me. I was kind of weird, so they said ...

Whenever I tried to study music theory I did not understand the logic of it in relation to the sounds I heard internally. For me everything started with the voice listening to the lyrics, the words being sung, the sound of instruments, of the wind blow, other voices, atmospheres and sound textures. The recording of Brasileira in 1987 was a herculean effort, which only happened due to the generosity of Luiz Eça and Marco Antonio Guimarães, along with Paulo Santos, of group Uaktí. And also Ricardo Bordini, who has been with me for ages, guessing and decoding my vocal sounds, which he translated for all kinds of instruments. Julio Saraiva, actor and designer, worked in various areas, from architecture to puppet theater, played accordion, sang and generously did the original graphic design of the album cover. He passed away in 2019, but is present in the new album Inkiri Om with a painting he made in the 1980s over a portrait of mine. Many years passed until I received a phone call from a close friend, Beto Kaiser, who worked with me for almost twenty years as technical director of my agency Antares. He told me his son Millos, whom I had known since childhood, was a fan of my work. I found it funny... Millos had become a DJ and used to play my songs in his parties, called Selvagem, and, as he said, he did not know that I was the same Maria Rita with whom his father used to work with ... This was a lap of many octaves, something that only happens in the movies.”

Before that John Gomez, a DJ and collaborator for Dutch label Music from Memory had found the LP Brasileira in Japan in 2015. Inspired by this album he created the collection Outro Tempo which was released worldwide in February 2017 and included Cântico Brasileiro nº 3 (Kamaiurá), Lamento Africano (African Lament) and Rictus. The first pressing of the LPs was sold out in less than three weeks. Additional pressings followed.

Meanwhile Millos Kaiser and Augusto Olivani, the DJs for the Selvagem Party, proposed to release a single dedicated to the world of DJs with a remix of Cântico Brasileiro No 3 (Kamaiurá) made by them and and Carrot Green, as well as include Lamento Africano (African Lament) / Rictus by French DJ Joakim. Eventually it was decided to re-release the LP Brasileira exactly as it was recorded and with the same sleeve, and for this they started label Selva Discos. It was also decided to re-record Cântico Brasileiro No.3 (Kamaiurá) with Paulo Santos of group with Uaktí. We teamed at Trama Studios in São Paulo and then the EP Remixes - Maria Rita Stumpf was born. It was released in October 2017 and was distributed worldwide by Kompakt, that also did it with Brasileira.

Shows performed at Cine Teatro Brasil in Belo Horizonte, Casa de Francisca in São Paulo and Kino Beat Festival in Porto Alegre marked the return to the stages sided by Paulo Santos and Ricardo Bordini. Also onstage were Andre Santos, on bass and pianist Danilo Andrade, who the artist met at the Red Bull Music Academy Festival on the occasion of the promotion shows of Outro Tempo, in June of 2017 at the iconic Teatro Oficina, São Paulo. In the same circumstances she met Kassin Kamal who directed the show and after that became a close musical and personal collaborator.

In March of 2018 she performed in the São Paulo leg of Dutch festival Dekmantel having added to her team percussionist Jovi Joviniano with whom she had worked with in 1993, plus adding bass player Diogo Strausz. Later she sang at the internet Radio Viruss São Paulo première where she met Matheus Câmara, aka Entropia-Entalpia, producer and guitarist with whom she regularly collaborates, including in the new album Inkiri Om

By the end of 2018 Inkiri Om started to materialize. It was thought during this long hiatus and was recorded at the newly opened Aprazível Studios, of Philippe Ingrand (aka Doudou), in the charming hills of Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro, from February to September, 2019. Inkiri Om features great names of brazilian music of different generations as Ricardo Bordini, Kassin Kamal, Lui Coimbra, Marcos Suzano, Jovi Joviniano, Paulo Santos Uaktí, Danilo Andrade e Matheus Câmara (Entropia Entalpia). It was released in May 2020 in all digital platforms and received great coverage from brazilian press.

She performed the opening evening at the Women’s Music Event 2020 at Casa Natura Musical in Sao Paulo, and soon after released her album Inkiri Om. 2021 saw her produce the online shows “Somos Um (We Are One)” to promote the new album and “Do Ancestral ao Eletrônico (From ancestral to electronics)” which focused on her cult LP Brasileira of 1988. Maria released her fourth album VER TENTE (Try and See) earning excellent reviews and audience response.

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