Brazilian pianist, composer brings Quinteto to Field Hall

Published 1:30 am Thursday, February 5, 2026

PORT ANGELES — Jovino Santos Neto has played for crowds of all sizes: festival throngs stretching out to the horizon on down to friends in their living room.

On Saturday night, the pianist, flutist, composer, arranger, producer, teacher and three-time Latin Grammy nominee will come to the Olympic Peninsula. He will take the stage at Field Arts & Events Hall at 7 p.m. with his band, the Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto.

The night will be a singular musical experience, Neto said. In a phone conversation from his home in Seattle, he said that, in a concert hall such as this, the audience can settle in and focus on the music’s flow more than they could in, say, a nightclub. In turn, the musicians feel the audience’s response, he said — and that creates a circular current of electricity among them all.

Tickets to Saturday’s concert — $12 to $35 for adults and $12 for youth — are available at fieldhallevents.org and at the door of the venue at 201 W. Front St., Port Angeles.

In addition, Neto will give a free solo performance titled “Contemporary Brazilian Music — Roots and Branches” at 12:15 p.m. today at Field Hall’s upstairs Sunset Lounge. In this one-hour presentation, Neto will demonstrate a variety of Brazilian styles and show how they influence his music with the Quinteto.

The public is invited to this concert preview, with no reservations needed.

For Saturday’s show, playing with the band — and filling the night with music he’s written — is “a very relaxed experience … I can close my eyes and play,” Neto said.

“And it’s different every time. With the five people in the band, there’s always an element of surprise.”

Neto brings to the show a lifetime of musical exploration. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he first set hands on a piano when he was 13, and he remembers liking J.S. Bach and Manuel de Falla. But it wasn’t long before the music on the radio took him in a new direction and to his career as a performer known around the world.

Neto was just 22 when he joined the famed Hermeto Pascoal Group. This was to be his training: international tours, hundreds of concerts, no two the same; playing five days a week and being ready for anything.

“Hermeto was such an unpredictable musical genius,” Neto said.

The group played jazz, dance music, contemplative music, high-energy music — Pascoal dissolved the walls, showing Neto that it’s all one experience, with many colors.

Then came the inspiration to add another instrument.

“I was watching Hermeto do amazing things with the flute,” Neto recalled, adding he still remembers the gorgeous melodies that flowed forth.

Neto got a flute while in Japan and found that it taught him to listen in a new way. When you pause to breathe, he said, you’re interjecting a whiff of silence in the phrases. Not only does the pause allow ideas to come into your head, but it makes the music more human.

After 15 years with Pascoal Group, Neto emigrated to the United States. He continued his career in Seattle, where he taught at Cornish College of the Arts for 26 years.

He has performed and composed in many styles, from jazz and chamber music to Brazilian choro, baiào, xote, forró and samba. On his website, jovisan.net, he has information about music lessons.

This week, Neto is visiting with students in the Port Angeles and Sequim school districts, playing music and sharing insights as part of Field Hall’s Peninsula Performs! program.

At 71, the act of making music — and sharing it with people of all ages — fills him with energy and inspiration.

It can be a two-hour show, said Neto, and “at the end, you are not exhausted. You are charged,” from all those vibrations in the air.

“I love playing for diverse audiences,” Neto added.

For example, the musician of global stature has enjoyed performing at the Crossroads shopping center in Bellevue. It was a place, he said, where all kinds of people stopped to listen — and dance.

“I saw a kid on a stroller, moving to the music, bouncing. That is a human thing, not a cultural thing. (Children) don’t have to know what kind of music it is. They vibe with it.

“I hope we can all become like that and listen deep,” he said.

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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.