Brazilian multi-artist based in New York “who has emerged in recent years as one of Brazil’s most innovative artists”, Beatriz Azevedo is poet, performer, director, singer and composer. Her artistic practice mixes the languages of music, theater, literature and audiovisual.
Transdisciplinary artist and researcher, Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Tisch Arts, Beatriz Azevedo holds a PHD Performing Arts and a Master in Comparative Literature from the University of São Paulo (USP). She is a Postdoctoral researcher at UNICAMP State University of Campinas, studied Music at Mannes College of Music in New York and Theather and Dramaturgy at Sala Beckett in Barcelona.
Beatriz Azevedo has collaborated with leading Brazilian musicians and artists, such as Maria Bethânia, Tom Zé, Cyro Baptista, Jaques Morelenbaum, Moreno Veloso and Vinicius Cantuária, as well as with Teatro Oficina’s tropicalist diretor Zé Celso. She created partnerships with the poet Augusto de Campos, the writers Hilda Hilst, Oswald de Andrade, Raul Bopp. Her musical compositions were sung by Adriana Calcanhotto, Matheus Nachtergaele, Moreno Veloso, Tom Zé, Zelia Duncan and Zé Celso Martinez Correa, among others.
Invited by Princeton University, Beatriz Azevedo created and directed Now Clarice to celebrate 100 years of Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. Filmed live, the presentation brings together Beatriz Azevedo, Moreno Veloso, and Maria Bethânia.
2022 marks the release of the new album Clarice Clarão with original compositions by Beatriz Azevedo, Moreno Veloso and Caetano Veloso, and with special appearance of the singer Maria Bethânia.
The label Biscoito Fino released their previous albums A.G.O.R.A, antroPOPhagia live in New York, and Alegria, with Tom Zé. Comissioned by Lincoln Center in New York, Beatriz created the show antroPOPhagia, presented at the Walter Reade Theater.
Beatriz Azevedo’s music features on the compilation Brazil: The Essential Album alongside Tom Jobim, Chico Buarque, Elis Regina, João Gilberto and other Brazilian masters, released by the UK label Union Square Music. Also in England the CD Bossa Nova Nights contains a further two tracks by Beatriz Azevedo.
Bum Bum do Poeta, first CD by Beatriz Azevedo, was released in Brazil by Caetano Veloso’s label Natasha Records and in Japan by Nippon Crown Records. Mapa-mundi [samba and poetry], the second CD by Beatriz Azevedo, was produced by Alê Siqueira.
Beatriz has performed widely throughout Brazil, Europe and the United States. In the last years, she performed at the MoMA Museum of Modern Art in New York and Lincoln Center, as well as participating in various international festivals such as Womex (Spain), Nublu Jazz Festival (New York), CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival (New York), Femmes du Monde (Paris), Mirada Ibero-Americano Festival, Popkomm Festival (Berlin), Dunya Festival (Rotterdam), Copa das Culturas (Berlin), Art Anthropophagie Aujourd’hui (Paris), Paraty International Literary Party (FLIP), Verizon Music Festival (New York), among others.
She is the author of Antropofagia Palimpsesto Selvagem (Cosac Naify, 2016) a new take on Oswald de Andrade’s Manifesto Antropófago with preface by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and drawings by artist Tunga; Transmatriarcado de Pindorama about Brazilian Modernism in Modernismos 1922-2022 (Cia das Letras, 2022); Antropófago Manifesto in Antropofagias: um livro manifesto!: Práticas da devoração a partir de Oswald de Andrade (Peter Lang publishers, Berlim, 2021); Abracadabra (Demônio Negro, 2019) with preface by Zé Celso Martinez Correa, Idade da Pedra and Peripatético (Editora Iluminuras).
Her writings and poetry have appeared in various publications, including Dusie 21 the contemporary brazilian poetry edition (Dusie Press, San Francisco USA); Poetas Contemporâneas do Brasil (Unicamp, 2021); LP Garganta 20 Brazilian contemporary poets, and the book Acabou Chorare, alongside Caetano Veloso and Arnaldo Antunes. Beatriz translated the French authors Jean Genet and Bernard-Marie Koltés, published for the first time in Brazil in the book Theatre of Bernard-Marie Koltes (Hucitec).
In addition to other audiovisual works, Beatriz Azevedo signs the direction and script of a documentary film.
