As a researcher, I have investigated, lectured, published articles and worked in new music, world jazz, music education, social innovation and multimedia composition around Brazil, Latin America and United States. I am a PhD Student of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture of Plymouth University (UK) and an Associate Professor and researcher of Music at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University’s School of Music (UNIRIO) for bachelor’s degree and Major programs in Music and Brazilian Popular Music.
In 2009, I made a reverse path in life, going back to the land of my family, in order to recover my musical, spiritual and family roots. I went to Bahia, explored the inner of Brazil, looking for sounds, stories and inspiration for authentic new work. For 2 years, I composed around 160 songs of many styles, and also experimented on poetry and imagery. In 2011, I recorded the EP Cândida, produced by the Grammy award-winning Alê Siqueira, starting my path as a songwriter in the music industry. I started an investigation of connecting social network, music, life, stories, roots, videos, photography, performance. It has become my main artistic research since then, feeding a great online and world community.
Special mention to “Memória e Fado” released 2 years later in New York when it was selected by New York Foundation for the Arts to perform as a video-music in the Archimedes Bathtub Exhibition.
At the same time, I was composing and recording for films, plays and ballet, and from these years came the sound score for the film “Capitães de areia” and the ballet “Descaminhos”, in which I lived an integrated process of creation with choreographer Ana Paula Port in São Paulo. This was the beginning of my investigation as a performer and an inter-arts creator, and one of my favorite works.
In 2013 I started an artistic residency in New York City, as a Prize from the Brazilian Government (FUNARTE) to study Electronic Music Production at SAE Institute and the Dubspot School. Then, I connected more deeply to the electronic, jazz and world music scene. Since then, I’ve been collaborating as a singer/composer/producer with Corey Baker from Pattern Drama (Touch of Class Label) and we have been developing a language of electronic music, based on my roots subject. From this process, came out the albums “Sweet Romance”, “Indian Summer Collection” Vol. 2 and 3, and Buddha Bar Collection vol. XVII, receiving great critics. Also, collaborations with the producer Dan Freeman (Comandante Zero) and other partners in NYC have developed the research on live set experimentation on voice and keys in electronic music.
Simultaneously, my experience in the university teaching musicians, actors and dancers connected me to Dr. Denise Telles – a researcher from the Laban Institute – in Rio de Janeiro since 2013, with who I’ve been making researches on body, movement, image and music. Through these 4 years, we have been conducting an institutional research on collaborative and multidisciplinary process of creation in arts, connecting music, performance, choreography, video. We have been practicing theoretical and studio investigation on the subject, which have been supporting our artistic, pedagogical and academic production. Based on Laban, Dalcroze, Kandinsky on the artistic references, and also Thomas Clifton and Merleau Ponty on phenomenological approaches.
This research resulted on a performance and investigation project named “At the Same Time”. This work has my composition and performance, directed and choreographed by Dr. Denise. Later in 2016, this same research inspired a new work: a video/music/performance piece named “Reza pro mar”, which had me performing, composing, playing, singing and co-editing the video. This work was chosen to be exhibited in New York, Berlin, Amsterdam as part of the exhibition “Borderless: in perspective” in November/ December 2016. This research also inspired the performance “Better be more than human in NYC”, that took place in 2013 at in the Grand Central Station in NYC.
Our investigative project has also contributed to an extension project in our University, in which we develop activities for students and community, like workshops, open classes/acts and multidisciplinary events. The educational process and approach is a great interest of my research.
My interdisciplinary research has been accomplished and developed also at the International Interdisciplinary Artists Consortium residency, at Earthdance (IIAC, Massachusetts) in 2016, where I was invited to take part with 20 other artists from around the globe to experiment interdisciplinary investigation in nature. This residency resulted on a performance and a photoshoot named “Music and nature”.
Through the university, I was also invited to become a researcher for LASIN – Latin American Social Innovation Network – supported and promoted by Glasgow Caledonian University/ Erasmus Foundation, that integrates 11 universities from 7 countries around the subject of innovation. We have been investigating how innovation can happen from the university to the open community, in social, cultural and technological areas of knowledge. The subject of immigration, social connection, roots, religions, diaspora around Latin America has been theme for understanding roots and wings for social innovation through art, and highly influenced my artistic production. These researches are subject for the articles I write for blogs, academic volumes and magazines.
From this background, my practice is developing in the direction of a multi-time-space creation on music, image, movement. My interests are to explore the subjects of nature and innovation, immigration and roots, spirituality and routine, through composition of new music, new creative interdisciplinary processes and forms of presentation, supported by technology and visual arts. Also, pedagogical approaches on developing artistic abilities on informal environment and non-guided content.