David de Hilster

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David de Hilster
DavidBrazilianBeat2016.jpg
David de Hilster leading the SambaLá drum corp at the Brazilian Beat Festival in Boca Raton Florida 2016
Born (1959-11-13) November 13, 1959 (age 64)
Ann Arbor Michigan
Nationality United States
Occupation Super Computer Researcher
Years active 23
Known for SambaLá Samba School, worldsamba.org, Brazilian Street Carnaval, Unidos do Mundo, Brazilian Day Los Angeles, Puxador
Home town Boca Raton, Florida
Partner(s) Doris de Hilster
Children Luanda de Hilster

David de Hilster is founder and president of SambaLá Samba School and samba singer and percussionist from the United States. He is best known for being founder of SambaLá Samba School, Unidos do Mundo 2000 and 2001, the Brazilian Street Carnaval of Long Beach, producing two years of the Brazilian Day in Los Angeles, and for being the first non-portuguese samba singer to sing in Rio's famed Sambadrome.

Music Beginnings

David started taking piano lessons at 8 years old and was playing Mozart by age ten. He also took up trumpet at age 9, playing in the marching band in high school, pit orchestra, and excelled at music theory where he was the only student without perfect pitch to get all dictations correct during an entire year of theory. David continued to play trumpet at his church and piano as a hobby.

Brazil

In 1979, David's family was a backup family for a foreign exchange student from Brazil and ended up traveling to Brazil the same year where David fell in love with the culture and music of Brazil. After visiting one more time in 1984, David returned to the United States to finish his masters degree in Linguistics and computers, finished a research project, sold everything, and moved to Rio de Janeiro. There he found a job at an artificial intelligence company where he met his wife at a alpine climbing club. David married Doris de Hilster in 1989 and they moved to the United States in 1990 where David found a job in California.

During his almost 3 years in Brazil, David never went to a samba school or played music.

Samba

In 1992, David and his wife moved to Long Beach California into an artist studio where David painted at night, working in computer research during the day. His wife Doris started Samba Collection, starting her own line of clothing and selling it in her store. David has his first art show with much of his art being computer and Brazilian themed and had his first radio interview on the Brazilian show Sounds of Brazil with Sergio Mielniczenko.

In 1993, the couple went to see the annual gay and lesbian parade which gave David the idea to start a samba school in Long Beach given Long Beach allowed such a "raucous" or wild parade. In March of 1994, in his wife store on Pine Avenue in Long Beach, a document was signed to start SambaLa Samba School. The name was chosen by one of the participants as being easy to say in English and still have meaning to Brazilians. The ending "La" means there in Portuguese translating "samba there" and "La" also could be said in English as "Samba LA" for Samba in Los Angeles.

At this time, David neither sang or played samba. Since there were no samba singers in the school at the time, David, who could carry a tune, was the only one who could sing with a cavaquinho (small stringed instrument) and so thus, he became the first "puxador" or samba singer for the group. David also learned to play the surdo, the big base drum.

Personal Life

David currently resides in Boca Raton Floriday and is married to clothes designer and carnaval artist Brazilian and Rio native Doris de Hilster (1989), with whom he has one daughter Luanda de Hilster (2005).