MARIÁ PORTUGAL

Named after a verse from the famous 1950s cha-cha-cha El Bodeguero by the Cuban flute player Richard Egües, TOMA CHOCOLATE! is a concert series curated by Brazilian musician Mariá Portugal, launched in early 2024. The series is held monthly at sowieso in Berlin, and its aim is to shed light on the significant role of Latin American musicians in the ongoing transformation of Berlin's experimental music scene over the past decades.

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We believe that a great deal of Latin American modern and contemporary music is characterized by the blurring of boundaries—between mainstream and underground, tradition and avant-garde, popular and academic, improvisation and composition. We want this series to embody that spirit, inviting Latin American musicians who are making bold artistic choices within their own style or instrumentation, whether the genre is noise, free improvisation, jazz, sound art, singer-songwriter, or electroacoustic music. We also try as much as possible to mix different genres, aesthetics, and audiences in the same night, in ways one wouldn’t commonly see.

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TOMA CHOCOLATE! is also meant to be a space for genuine experimentation, where artists feel welcome and safe to step outside their usual ways of making music—taking risks, expanding their horizons, and fostering new possibilities for collaboration. Participants are invited to present work in progress, test their artistic research first-hand, try different formats they are not used to but are curious to explore, or improvise freely with newly acquainted colleagues.

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In its two years of existence, the project has already featured Laura Robles, Ale Hop, Marina Cyrino, Matthias Koole, Chico Mello, Emilio Gordoa, Vinícius Cajado, Gustavo Obligado, Camila Nebbia, Vicente Barreto, Lara Alarcón, Ernesto Cárcamo Cavazos, Nicole Luján, Paula Sánchez, Mariana Camargo, Marcela Lucatelli, Carla Boregas, and Juliana Perdigão, as well as touring artists such as Inés Terra and Marina Mello, among others.

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