Ana Clara Matos: “Crying taught me to breathe in unison with others”
The 30-year-old flutist talks about her first jam session at the club when she was 17, and about the “choros” she has been composing about Belém.
Ana Clara arrived at Casa do Choro with a borrowed flute and the certainty that she wouldn’t play. She did play. Thirteen years later, she is one of the leading voices of the new generation of choro from Pará.
How was your first choro session?
I spent three Thursdays sitting in the corner, just listening. On the fourth, the guys from Regional do Paço started a choro I knew, and someone pointed at me. I messed up half of it, but nobody stopped.
In the circle, no one stops to correct you. The music keeps going, and you just have to keep up.
And what about the choros about Belém?
I started writing with specific places in mind: the little staircase at Ver-o-Peso, Praça da República in the late afternoon. Each choro is named after a street corner.