LEWISBURG — According to a press release, Bucknell University’s Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome the Heloísa Fernandes Quartet at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the Weis Center Concert Hall, 525 Weis Drive.

A pianist and composer, Fernandes returns to the U.S. for her first visit since recording her acclaimed piano solo album, “Faces,” in 2015 in Chicago. She brings her new quartet with a newly composed program — “Sonho das águas” (“Dream of the Waters”) — and will conclude her visit with solo performances and a return to PianoForte Studio in Chicago to record a new solo album.

Fernandes encapsulates the sound of a woman free to study literature, poetry, nature and the classical, jazz and Brazilian musical worlds, and to let them shape her identity and flow into compositions. Her creations, described as both strong and original, effortlessly bridge ancient and modern influences, blossoming with rhythmic vitality and melodic delicacy. With her skill as an improviser, she searches for emotional depths and soars with joy.

She is a Visa Brazilian Music Award recipient and a celebrated finalist, known for critically acclaimed albums like “Fruto,” “Candeias” and “Inzu.” With a rich repertoire, collaborations and contributions to award-winning projects like the Project Ms. Mozart, which was recognized at D&AD in London in 2021, Fernandes continues to make a profound impact on the world stage.

Her new quartet includes flutist Toninho Carrasqueira, a virtuoso in both the realms of classical and Brazilian popular music; double bassist Sidiel Vieira, one of the rising stars of a new generation of Brazilian instrumentalists; and percussion Ari Colares, whose knowledge of Brazilian rhythms and colors have illuminated Fernandes’s music for more than twenty-five years.

“The story will be told in frames or chapters, which reflect moments of observation and reflection on the beauty, immensity and life that exists in the Amazon,” she said of the show.

“The year 2024 began with a strong desire to create new material for a new musical family – the quartet – so that together we could tell the story that happened inside me after living an important moment in my life,” Fernandes added. “I had a very moving experience at the end of 2023, when I traveled to the Amazon for the first time for a concert, and came across the immensity of the forest and its many rivers. It was transformative to see so much beauty.”

So began her quest to tell a musical story inspired by the Amazon, the largest tropical forest in the world, which supports incomparable biodiversity, inhabited by countless indigenous peoples, crossed by several rivers, including the Amazon River, the largest and most voluminous river in the world.

“A few months after I began working on the compositions, one night I had a dream in which I threw myself into the waters of a rushing river and felt everything perfectly, as if I was actually in it – the temperature, the movement of the water, the river carrying me, the surroundings with the forest – in short, the entire environment and its sensations,” she said.“I woke up happy and absolutely convinced that I was on the right track.”

“Nature has always been present in my compositions, in a way,” Fernandnes noted, “because I am Brazilian and I live in a country that supplies the world with its forests and rivers. The story that we are telling with this quartet today is a reflection and also a cry to the world, about the importance of the Amazon for the planet, as a source of life and the need for its preservation.”

“I hope that we can achieve our goal, to honor the Amazon through music, awakening people’s senses so that they feel and think about the importance of life.”

Some of the works are still waiting for Fernandes to give them titles. Those that have been named are “Oferenda ao Rio Amazonas” (“Offering to the Amazon River”), “Depois da chuva” (“After the Rain”), “Lago do Amanã” (“Lake Amanã”), “Tempo dos sonhos” (“Time of Dreams”), and “Silêncio nos olhos” (“Silence in the Eyes”).

Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice. They are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).