Derek Wright

Derek Wright has been a musician all of his life. Growing up in New Orleans, he was a jazz bassist, a saxophonist, and percussionist. In the mid 1990s he began learning Middle Eastern and Afghan music, and started playing the oud. In 2002 he moved to the Bay Area and began studying North Indian classical music (both vocal and instrumental) with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Derek has continued to study at the Ali Akbar College of Music, using the oud in the style of the sarode. Since 1995 he has also been a passionate student, performer, and teacher of Brazilian music (mostly percussion and vocal) and dance. Derek has traveled to Brazil many times and attended California Brazil Camp every year since 2002 (where he has been on staff as a dance accompanist and teacher since 2006). In 2012 he organized the first-ever US cultural exchange tour with Mestre Nininho, a master drummer, composer and teacher from Olinda, PE, Brasil who founded and directs Maracatu Badia, the first-ever maracatu group in Pernambuco to allow women to play the alfaia and caixa drums.