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.
A highlight from June was Reunion Weekend, which included Ideas Fest and the Athletics Hall of Fame induction. Restorations and repairs continued across campus, and the concrete was poured for the new Elting Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Reunion Weekend 2026 welcomed back to campus nearly 1,000 Bantams from class years ending in 1 and 6. A highlight of the weekend’s programming was Ideas Fest 2026.
As the culmination of the academic year, the month of May included Commencement, Baccalaureate, the Trinity Film Festival, a staff and faculty retirement celebration, a tree planting for Charter Day, and much more.
The Trinity College campus is among the landscapes featured on the Olmsted Trail, a new online resource offered by the Olmsted Network cataloging projects shaped by pioneering landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
