A rainy day couldn’t dampen the spirits that were enlivened by the 17th Annual Samba Fest. Crowds gathered to listen and dance to Brazilian and world music at Trinity College’s Austin Arts Center on April 26, 2025.
The festival—which is free and open to all—was founded in 1997 by Professor of Music Eric A. Galm. In recognition of the valuable impact that this cross-cultural event has had on the public, Galm and Samba Fest recently received the Society for Ethnomusicology’s 2024 Judith McCulloh Public Sector Award.
The featured artists from Brazil were: Confraria do Groove/Groove Brotherhood; Quarteto Pirá—with Nelson Latif, Marcelo Lima, Esdras Rodrigues, and Galm—and the DJ and sax duo OUTPLANET.
Artists from Connecticut included: Hartford’s Proud Drill Drum and Dance Corp; Bomba Fusion (Puerto Rican bomba music and dance with Nelson Bello); and Zikina (East African-inspired world music with Gideon Ampieri).
Brazilian dance workshops (Capoeira, Maculelê, and Samba) were offered by Efraím Silva and Thelma Ladeira.
The Trinity Samba Ensemble, directed by Galm, featured special guests José Paulo, Austin Tewksbury, Brandon Serafino, Ashish Adhikari, Khaiim Kelly, Nelson Latif, Jake Weiner, Patrick Lennon, Michael Ferrigno, and Marsala Mbaye. A performance by Trinity Steel was directed by Curtis Greenidge.
The day also included games, activities, crafts, food trucks, free face painting by Amazing Face Art, and more.
See more photos in the gallery below and watch a recording of the Samba Fest livestream here.
October is always a busy time of year, marked annually by Fall Weekend—which this year included the first Bantam Fall Fest. Academics and athletics intertwined with special events to welcome alumni speakers and the Hartford community to campus this month.
Trinity College has begun the process of building a new strategic plan, Trinity 2040, and is seeking input from members of the Trinity community. The plan’s workstreams are focused on the Arts and STEM, the Learner Lifecycle, and the Neighborhood.
“Through my time in club meetings and traveling with the team, I was able to form a real sense of community and long-lasting friendships,” says Cate Griffin ’27, who encourages all students to discover their place at Trinity.
Paintings by Visiting Assistant Professor of Fine Arts Jenny Wu are part of a two-person exhibition at the Windsor Art Center in Windsor, Connecticut, from November 14, 2026, through January 2, 2027.
