Who we are

G.R.E.S. Unidos da Primavera, a.k.a. the Brisbane Samba School, was founded in February 2003 by Remko Wallach, former lead cavaquinho player with the Melbourne Samba School.

Our goal is to share our love for traditional Brazilian samba percussion in Australia, remaining true to the spirit of world-famous Brazilian samba schools including Mangueira, Salgueiro and Portela. We strive to emulate them as samba percussionists and to perform with the same passion and dedication.  

We actively encourage participation by anyone interested to learn samba percussion, regardless of experience, age, gender or nationality. We have a hard-core group of enthusiasts, which we are continuously trying to grow. Currently we have around 20 active members, which we would like to grow to more than 100. After all, Brazilian samba schools perform with up to 500 players!

What's in a name?

Like many Brazilian samba schools named after their local neighbourhood, ours was named after the central Brisbane suburb of Spring Hill, our origin. 'Spring' translates to 'Primavera' in Brazilian Portuguese. 

G.R.E.S. stands for 'Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba', a prefix all Brazilian samba schools use, which loosely translates to 'samba school'. Literally, our name translates to 'the United Samba School of Spring', but our official English name is the Brisbane Samba School.

G.R.E.S. Unidos da Primavera - July 2007