Ana Carbatti
A native Brazilian from Rio de Janeiro, Ana Carbatti began her career as a professional actress and singer 1988. She graduated in Performing Arts from the University of Rio de Janeiro in 1996. She has participated in professional workshops with director Tarak Hammam (France), director François Kahn (France), Teatro Tascabile di Bergamo (Italy), and Teatro Potlach (Italy). Ms. Carbatti has performed in countless dramatic and comic plays throughout more than 20 years of professional stage experience. Carbatti was nominated for the MAMBEMBE 1997 AWARD (Rio de Janeiro – Brazil) for best supporting actress and won BEST ACTRESS in the 1995 NEW TALENT AWARD, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a stage director she created the children’s play project "THE ADVENTURES OF TABARIN", a medieval farce adaptation that garnered awards at the Florianópolis Theater Festival in 1997. Ana has worked in many popular, mainstream Brazilian soap operas (telenovelas) dubbed into many languages and aired in countries on every continent. In feature-length cinema she has had roles in films directed by Sergio Bianchi, Silvio Bach, and Jose Antônio Garcia. Music has always occupied a crucial space in her artistic life. Noted for her technical control and clear, powerful voice, she has been a central figure in musical theater in Rio since the beginning of her stage career. Alongside her career as an actress, Ms. Carbatti has also performed as a Brazilian Jazz singer in the music scene of Rio and Buzios since 1999. In 2004 she relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she has built a reputation as a superb singer of Brazilian and American jazz, including Bossa Nova, Choro, and Samba. She has continued to act—now in English—playing leading roles in productions at Stanford University Theatre.
Pablo Rivière
The Argentine-born guitarist/composer/painter/engineer grew up strongly influenced by Brazilian music. But in those days in Buenos Aires his attention was on progressive rock, followed by fusion. After moving to the Los Angeles area, he studied harmony and piano, and composed music for TV commercials and theater plays for a short time. He later moved to the Bay Area and focused on electronic music composition and studied classical violin (and American folk fiddle as well), but returned to his beloved guitar in 2001, when he became a founding member of Sambosseros. Pablo has since been continuing his research into Brazilian music and playing with the group for Bay Area audiences, as well as occasionally accompanying Bay Area Latin singer Ana Nitmar. In 2006 Pablo produced the CD Gabiroba, which includes 3 of his original compositions (Sambossero, Gabiroba, and Forrosnazzy).
Bill Cawthorne
Bill came from Southern California. His parents, both musicians, immersed him in jazz, classical & even Brazilian music pretty early. Piano lessons began at 6. At 13 he discovered the trumpet, which took him from there through college, playing in every music performance class available. He studied music theory, synthesis and composition, while gigging regularly with various local “soul”, R&B, and rock groups. Later, after touring the western states for several years, arranging & playing dance music, Bill found a home in the beautiful Bay Area. In this fertile atmosphere all his strongest, early influences really began to ferment – the genius of Miles, Dizzy, Ellington, Jobim, João Gilberto, Billie Holiday, The Beatles - and he seriously began to pursue a life-long passion for Jazz and Brazilian music.
Jesse Van Hiller
Jesse brings a wealth of experience and energy to the group, having played and recorded with country, funk, jazz, fusion and rock groups. Jesse traveled extensively through Europe and the Western US, wrote a novel, designed professional recording studios, became a photographer, recorded albums with a couple of bands, and started a few others. Sambosseros are part of his newly found Brazilian experience. Jesse holds a day job in the computer industry, while continuing to be involved with various original music groups in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Carl Herder
Carl Herder is a musical chameleon who inhabits a broad swath of the musical style spectrum. He first joined the Bay Area Brazilian music scene in the late 1970s with Aguamarinha. But his love of the music was really cemented through his participation in the first San Franciso Carnaval celebrations as part of Culebra. In addition to samba, jazz, funk and rock bands, Carl has performed the full range of Caribbean music, including salsa, soka and reggae. Before joining Sambosseros, Carl performed brazillian music with Anna Estrada and Almas Feras.