The Division of Music at Nicholls State University will present an evening of flute and piano music featuring guest flutist Danilo Mezzadri and Nicholls faculty pianist Luciana Soares at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 31 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Thibodaux. The duo will perform a program of French and Brazilian music by Milhaud, Dutilleux, Gaubert, Gnattalli, Pattavio Silva and Pitombeira. The performance is free and open to the public.

Danilo Mezzadri is a Brazilian flutist who has sustained an active career as a performer and teacher. He has appeared as a soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Jackson Symphony Orchestra, Pró-Música Symphony Orchestra of Rio de Janeiro, Camerata Florianópolis, Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra, Musique 21, and University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. He has won several competitions and is an avid chamber music performer. As a founding member of the Quarteto Brasilis, he has given international tours and recorded a CD featuring South American music for flute and strings. He is also a member of the Category 5 Winds, which is currently in a project to record a CD featuring woodwind literature from four continents, and the Promenade Trio, an ensemble dedicated to revitalizing Baroque wind literature.

Currently, Mezzadri is an assistant professor of flute at the University of Southern Mississippi and guest principal flute at the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra. During the summer, he serves on the faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and Cortona Contemporary Music Festival, and also maintains an active performing and teaching schedule in the United States, Italy and Brazil. His performances have been broadcasted by Rede Vida Television in Brazil, and by Mississippi Public Radio in the United States.

Luciana Soares is an assistant professor of piano at Nicholls. She began her musical training at the age of five in her native Brazil. Under the mentoring of pianist Belkiss Spenziéri Carneiro de Mendonça, she received numerous awards in national competitions and appeared frequently as both soloist and collaborative pianist at concert halls throughout Brazil. She was later a student of Caio Pagano at Arizona State University and Mary Ann Stringer at the University of Southern Mississippi. In addition to performing and teaching a variety of repertoires ranging from Baroque to contemporary, Soares is also strongly dedicated to promoting the music of her native country. Her accomplishments as a researcher and performer have placed her on the forefront of presenting lectures and recitals of Brazilian music at universities, concert series, and conferences throughout the United States and abroad. She can be heard on the Centaur Records label with her solo recording “Brasileira: Piano Music by Brazilian Women