Dan Costa 2026 Melbourne Masterclass Brazilian Music
October 8th 2026 7 pm – 9 pm
Cross Street Music Hall
16-22 Cross Street, East Brunswick
Cost: $75
Who is Dan Costa?
Dan Costa is a jazz/ world music pianist and composer known for his original work and for his collaborations with artists such as Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Hermeto Pascoal, Dave Liebman, Ivan Lins, Seamus Blake, Dave Douglas, Romero Lubambo, Leila Pinheiro, Marcos Suzano, Jaques Morelenbaum and Roberto Menescal. He studied classical piano as well as jazz piano at the Académie de Musique Rainier III in Monaco for six years prior to taking a diploma at Sir Paul McCartney‘s Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. He then focused on jazz at the Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espetáculo in Portugal, graduating with distinction and a Rotary Club Award for outstanding achievement.
During his course, he was also awarded a grant to study Brazilian music at UNICAMP in São Paulo, Brazil as an international exchange student, and pursued further studies at Berklee College of Music. His music has been featured by DownBeat, All About Jazz, Jazziz, BBC, Sky News, La Repubblica and Rolling Stone, amongst others. He has released 3 studio albums – Suite Três Rios (2016), Skyness (2018) and Beams (2023) –, a live solo album – Live in California (2020) –, and two singles – Love Dance (2020) with Ivan Lins and Iremia (2022) with Randy Brecker, and has more recently recorded new material with Ron Carter and Bob Mintzer. He has performed on six continents and his music was used by FOUR PAWS to raise awareness of animal welfare during a tour of Australia.
Dan’s music has been included in instructional material and he has been a guest lecturer at major institutions. Dan Costa is currently doing a PhD, having graduated in philosophy (BA), applied linguistics (MA) and history (MA), and worked as an educator and writer for publications such as Encyclopaedia Britannica, where he referred to tempo as “the heartbeat of expression”.
Masterclass Details
Dan explores the origins, social context and development of the Brazilian music genres which have interacted with jazz and have informed his music, such as modinha, samba, maracatu, chorinho, bossa nova and baiao. He uses videos and audio recordings to show students elements of the styles in question, as well as to introduce them to key figures and instruments. He also shows how these have been instrumental in the shaping of his musical output. The masterclass has been done at major universities such as Monash (Australia), the University of New South Wales (Australia), Australian National University, Victoria (NZ), Auckland (NZ), Mahidol (Thailand), Royal Academy of Music (UK), the Royal Northern College of Music (UK) and Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (UK). In 2024, featured on Australia’s Channel Seven and went viral on social media in Indonesia.
