Yamandu Costa in Illinois

[Yamandu Costa in Illinois. September 9, 2023. Photograph by Elaine Fine.]

Elaine and I had the great good fortune to hear the guitarist Yamandu Costa yesterday in — of all places — east-central Illinois. His free performance was part of ELLNORA (so styled), the biennial guitar festival held at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

Yamandu is a household name in his native Brazil, and he performs widely in Europe and Latin America. His appearance at ELLNORA was one of only two performances in the United States this year. I’ve been following Yamandu’s music for several years via performances on YouTube and a lone CD. The chance to hear him in person was one I hadn’t counted on.

Yamandu’s range of expression on the guitar (the seven-string Brazilian guitar) is, to my ears, unparalleled. From a whisper to a storm, with impeccable taste, imaginative freedom, and extraordinary harmonic complexity — and maté at his side, which he says helps with faster numbers.

I arrived with my one CD yesterday and left with seven more. I asked Yamandu if he would sign two, and he insisted on signing them all, after slicing open the seven new ones — no hesitation — with his thumbnail.

Here are just two musical samples: an audience video from a September 7 performance in North Bethesda, Maryland, and a professional video of “À Legrand,” a composition dedicated to Michel Legrand. And here are Yamandu Costa’s website, Instagram, and YouTube channel.

Elaine too wrote about this performance, with a photograph of Yamandu at the signing table.

Note to the Krannert Center: bring Yamandu Costa back, please, before the next ELLNORA, and give him the Foellinger Great Hall, where he belongs. Obrigado.