Villa-Lobos International Chamber Music Festival

The performance of and education about Latin American chamber music, with a focus on the music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos as well as contemporary Latin American composers.

Our organization and annual festival was founded by Lars Hoefs, cello professor at Sao Paulo State University in Campinas, Brazil, and based in Oceanside, CA. Since 2015, we have put on an annual festival each January in Southern California, consisting of around 15 concerts of Latin American chamber music, spread out in venues from San Diego to Los Angeles. In addition to performing concerts in the annual festival, our organization undertakes school outreach projects, visiting classrooms and auditoriums in elementary, middle, and high schools in Southern California to speak with schoolchildren about music, cultural exchange, and many other topics. We have also developed a digital record label and have released seven albums in the last 4 years, with more to be released soon.

In the past year, we have grown to a capacity never before possible - as such, we have performed more school outreach programs than ever before (in San Clemente, Carlsbad, and Coronado), involved more musicians in our most recent festival concerts (January 2024), and released additional albums on our digital label ("Grand Concerto" and "Bach Bem Acompanhado, Suite no. 3").

We still need more funding and resources to be able to pay musicians fairly for their services, to pay our administrative staff, and to realize recording projects.

Southern California: San Clemente, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Coronado.