With over 150 years of history, choro has its trajectory recorded through scores, recordings, newspapers, books, testimonials, photographs, iconography – items that mirror the richness of one of the richest genres of Brazilian popular music. The Casa do Choro Institute (ICC for short, in Portuguese) has at its headquarters a specialized reference center for this music, which houses and makes a significant part of this memory accessible to musicians and researchers. Scores, recordings, photographs, instruments, books, and records (78rpm, vinyl, and CDs) are part of the collection and are being gradually made available to the general public interested in choro and its history. The different collections of ICC reflect different moments of choro and are the result of the work of musicians and researchers who dedicate their lives to building this memory.

About 28,000 scores have been cataloged, divided into two periods: about 15,000 scores are authored by composers born in the 19th century, representatives of the beginnings of choro. This slice of the collection reveals an expressive part of the musical production of the first and second generation of composers active in the second half of the 19th century, a period before the advent of records and radio. Among them are Chiquinha Gonzaga, Ernesto Nazareth, Irineu de Almeida, Mário Alves da Conceição, Pedro Galdino, Henrique Alves de Mesquita, Anacleto de Medeiros, Satiro Bilhar, Joaquim Callado, among others. Another significant part of the collection reflects the production of choro in the 20th century, with classic authors such as Jacob do Bandolim, Pixinguinha, Radamés Gnattali, Luiz Americano, Garoto, among others, in addition to the contemporary production represented by important composers of today such as Mauricio Carrilho, Cristóvão Bastos, Luciana Rabello, among several others. The guitarist Anna Paes was a partner in the research and assembly of the collection.

Radamés Gnattali Collection
Since 2023, Casa do Choro has the honor of housing the collection of Radamés Gnattali, a central figure in Brazilian popular and concert music of the 20th century. There are hundreds of manuscripts and editions with the original work of this composer and arranger, cataloged and organized by professor Roberto Gnattali. The collection also includes personal objects, photographs, and musical instruments that belonged to Radamés.

Choro Repertoire Inventory Collection (Mauricio Carrilho and Anna Paes)
The research conducted in 1999 by Mauricio Carrilho and Anna Paes, with the support of the Rio-Arte Scholarship Program – revealed a vast universe of over 10,000 works by choro composers from all over Brazil.

Altamiro Carrilho Collection
Since the flutist's death in 2012, Casa do Choro has the honor of housing this collection donated by his family to be part of our collection. Composed of recordings, manuscripts, photographs, objects, trophies, and personal documents, the collection is being cataloged by researcher Tomaz Retz.

Rare Works Collection
Composed of copyists' notebooks and original manuscripts, this collection is the result of donations that Casa do Choro receives from people who wish to preserve compositions that only exist in these documents. The notebooks are cataloged, digitized, stored in neutral paper, and housed in polypropylene boxes.

Retiro da Velha Guarda Collection
This collection was donated to the Casa do Choro Institute and includes about 300 works by various composers. Retiro da Velha Guarda was a haven for chorões from the early 20th century and met in Jacarepaguá until the 1960s. Some of its members were Léo Vianna (Pixinguinha's brother), Napoleão de Oliveira (one of the members of the Ameno Resedá ranch), Luperce Miranda, Déo Rian, Jacob do Bandolim, among others.

Orlando Silveira Collection
This collection contains the arrangements of Orlando Silveira for the album Ary Barroso 90 years.

Nicolino Cópia Collection
This collection was donated to Casa do Choro by Rubens Cópia, Copinha's son, and contains rich material with arrangements, photographs, and manuscripts of the flutist.

Luciana Rabello Collection
This collection was donated by the cavaquinist Luciana Rabello and consists of her personal collection, together with her brother, Raphael Rabello. The collection contains scores, photographs, manuscripts, and edited works.

Milton Varela Vilas Collection
This collection was donated to the Casa do Choro Institute by collector Milton Varela Vilas and contains more than 2,000 78rpm records and LPs.

Escola Portátil de Música Collection
In its more than 20 years of activity, the Escola Portátil de Música stands out not only as a reference in choro teaching but also as a producer of didactic material for the use of students and musicians. The EPM collection consists of about 1,000 edited and revised scores by composers from various periods of choro history.

Almirante Collection
The collection of the radio broadcaster and singer Henrique Foréis Domingues, nicknamed the “Almirante” (Admiral), originally belongs to the Museum of Image and Sound, which graciously donated a copy of the score collection from the archive to the Casa do Choro Institute. Mainly composed of printed and edited scores, the collection reflects much of the production of the radio era.

Mauricio Carrilho Collection (Audio)
Contains part of the personal LP collection of the guitarist, with about 1,000 records. It arrived at the ICC at the beginning of 2016.

Jacob do Bandolim Institute Collection
The Jacob do Bandolim Institute recently cataloged, digitized, and donated its entire collection to the Museum of Image and Sound of Rio de Janeiro, totaling about 1,500 digitized documents, with the aim of facilitating access for those interested. However, some items from its collection (such as personal objects and some instruments) could not be received by MIS/RJ. In this sense, IJB opted to donate some of these items to the Casa do Choro Institute. Among the instruments, we highlight the Dynamic Tenor Guitar (Vibraplex). In the 1950s, Jacob do Bandolim created the historic Vibraplex by connecting this Del Vecchio tenor guitar to a Hammond organ, creating a new sound. He recorded several 78rpm disc tracks with this instrument, among them: Feitiço (1954) and Brotinho (1953).

Herminio Bello de Carvalho Collection
With the need to expand access to his private collection, Hermínio donated some items to ICC in 2015 to be part of the research center of Casa do Choro. Among them are a collection of 15 caricatures of Pixinguinha made by great plastic artists of the country such as Nassara, Cavalcanti, Elifas Andreato, among others, in addition to part of his library, with books on culture and popular music. Herminio is President of the honorary council of Casa do Choro.

Sérgio Prata Collection (Iconography)
This collection was donated to Casa do Choro by the researcher and cavaquinist Sergio Prata and contains photographs of chorões from various eras.

Luperce Miranda Collection (Iconography)
This collection is composed of photographs of the mandolinist Luperce Miranda and his family, in different periods of his life.

Bosco Rabello Collection (Iconography)
This collection consists of photographs from the 1970s to 1990s portraying the “revival” of choro and its chorões with photographs of the ensemble Época de Ouro (post Jacob), the Carioquinhas, Paulinho da Viola, Cartola, and Carlos Cachaça, among others.

Illustrated Encyclopedia of Choro in the 19th Century
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of choro in the 19th century project was developed by Anna Paes in 2005, with the support of the Rio-Arte Foundation. It consists of a database containing 9,000 titles of works by about 1,300 composers born in the 19th century and their respective biographical data, as well as photographs and musical illustrations.