A Viola No Espelho (The Guitar In The Mirror) is a Fulbright awarded music study and production project which will take place in Goiânia, Goiás State, Brazil beginning in February 2025. 

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My name is Ben Sturdevant. I am a producer, audio engineer, musician and songwriter from the Midwest of the USA. In partnership with The Federal University of Goiás (UFG) and its new popular music program, this project will bring together my personal journey of learning the music of central Brazil on a deeper level with the creative energy of musicians living in Goiás, a major center of commercial Sertaneja music. The goal of A Viola No Espelho is to facilitate a creative environment in which a select group of musicians will arrive and collaborate, free of the trappings of the commercial industry. We will experiment with our musical ideas together as we learn more about each others’ musical backgrounds, roots and dreams. We will generate an unpredictable and unexpected body of exciting, new roots based musical work while simultaneously generating a dialogue which will provide insight into the living musical folk cultures of the region.

 

In addition to UFG, A Viola No Espelho is also affiliated with George Washington University and The University of São Paulo. As the project develops this website will serve as a blog and as a calendar of events and performances.