Cynara

Cynara maintained a distinguished individual path alongside the activities of the Quarteto em Cy, whose members included her sisters Cyva, Cybele, and Cylene. She pursued her education in Salvador through 1962 while taking part in amateur theater and appearing on Rádio Sociedade da Bahia. During 1959 she joined her sister Cylene to create an amateur duo that captured first place in a competition staged by TV Itapuã in Salvador, Bahia; the pair also hosted a weekly program on the same station featuring material that would soon define bossa nova. In 1963, after Cyva had already established a foothold there, Cynara relocated to Rio de Janeiro together with her sisters. That same year the siblings met Vinícius de Moraes, who proposed the name for their vocal group. The Quarteto em Cy made its first appearance on June 30, 1964, at the Bottle's Bar inside Beco das Garrafas. Cynara departed the ensemble in 1967 to form the duo Cybele Cynara with her sister Cybele, an act that remained together only until 1968. She issued her debut solo album, Pronta Pra Consumo, in 1969 and, in the same year, entered the Juiz de Fora Song Festival in Minas Gerais, where the song "Casaco Marrom" (Renato Corrêa/Danilo Caymmi/Gutemberg Guarabyra) earned first prize and later attained classic status. Between 1972 and 1984 she resumed her place within the Quarteto em Cy. While the group stood inactive from 1984 to 1987, Cynara composed vocal arrangements and performed with the ensemble Chovendo na Roseira—devoted to the works of Tom Jobim and also featuring Bia Paes Leme, Soraya Monte Nunes, and Luciana Medeiros—while additionally serving as producer for various television specials. When the Quarteto em Cy resumed activity in 1987, she co-produced an independent album by Luís Armando Queiroz. At the invitation of Arthur Moreira Lima she oversaw the weekly broadcasts of the Sexta Básica project from 1987 to 1990. From 1990 to 1993 she produced and hosted the daily Rádio MEC program Circuito Instrumental, which presented both Brazilian and international instrumental music. She contributed vocal arrangements to several Quarteto em Cy recordings and supplied the arrangements for the MPB-4 albums Bate-Boca and Somos Todos Iguais. Cynara died in Rio de Janeiro on April 11, 2023, at the age of 78.