Cellist Diego Carneiro comes from Brazil's Amazon Delta, a place known more for mango trees and tropical birds than classical music.
When he plays the cello, it seems to become part of him, like another limb or another pulse. His face and body animate with every note, and his hair sways as he plays. Each note is uniquely infused with his connection to the landscape where he grew up.
"I wrote a piece about the Amazon, and I put bird calls and jaguars," he said of one composition.
You might not associate the Amazon rainforest with cello players. Carneiro laughs that he has become "quite exotic."
"If you look at the cello, the contours, the shape of it, it does look like the Amazon River," he points out.
You can hear his connection in the range of music he plays. From classical works like Bach to energetic Brazilian rhythms as well as his own original compositions inspired by nature and social justice.
"It's a discovery for me; it's a passion; it brings you lots of inspiration," he said.
For Carneiro, the cello is about much more than music: It’s an instrument for peace. He’s played in conflict zones and refugee camps around the world, and recently the United Nations in Geneva recognized his humanitarian work.
He said music can do something that words sometimes can’t. It can cross borders and bring people together to create a connection between cultures, even in places where there is conflict.
"The cello became a voice, a passport. I went to the borders of Uganda and Congo; there are lots of conflicts. Then I was also in Palestinian territories recently, in Israel and at the borders; I was there playing. Can you believe I put myself in situations and I played the cello there too," he said.
"I played lots to refugee camps," he shared. "They'd never seen the cello before. Once I was playing to 70-year-old men who were refugees from Rwanda, Congo, all together, and when I stopped playing, they were crying. And I said, 'Why's that?' And they said, 'Well, something touched my heart. The way you play, the way you make this piece of wood sound, and I felt something I cannot explain. It does bring these lessons that I have to also discover how important it is for us nowadays to connect, relate to people, to interact with people, and music plays this role especially nowadays because of so much technology and a virtual world. When we have this face-to-face approach, music creates unforgettable magic moments."
For Carneiro, the cello gave him a voice and a purpose. He wants to empower other young people, especially in conflict zones, to create music. He created Instruments of Peace, which brings instruments and music education to people who are displaced or underserved, as he explained.
"Opportunities for young people to learn, perform...also to use music as a tool to create peace programs and connect to environments (where people are) underprivileged...I decided to travel the world to around 80 countries, and I want to do more now," he said.
The cellist laughs at the idea that he should have taken up a smaller and more portable instrument rather than a cello, given all the traveling he does.
"I kind of realize that now!" he said. "The energy you put into that instrument comes back as a resonance to your body that resonates too and amplifies it into feelings. Imagine, if we replace guns with instruments, what kind of world would we have, right?"
Carneiro plays Sunday, September 13 at 6 p.m. at Santa Barbara's First United Methodist Church as part of the Concert for Peace.
