Carnival is celebrated for four to six days before the religious holiday of Ash Wednesday in February, and is similar to the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans. In larger cities, Zuza explained, the Carnival celebrations feature parades of professional singers and dancers in festive costumes, or concerts by popular entertainers.

In smaller towns, Carnival is a family and town celebration. Each day local family clubs hold afternoon parties for children and in the evening sponsor floats in a parade attended by young and older adults. Many of the people attend parties following the parade. Zuza shared videos of the Carnival parade in his hometown and a Carnival concert in the city of Salvador.

“We usually warm up our vocal skills in class with a variety of international folk songs before practicing longer concert pieces,” explained Ms Tenenbaum. Her students performed for Zuza by singing “Ma Ma Paquita,” which is a favorite Brazilian folk song.

At the end of his visit Zuza invited students to consider visiting Brazil. He said, “In the past few years our town has hosted exchange students from Australia and Pennsylvania who enjoyed learning about our culture and especially Carnival. So I hope some of you may visit us when you are older.”