On Christmas Eve 2014, I received a letter from the William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
It began:
“On behalf of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, I am pleased to congratulate you on your selection for a Fulbright award to Brazil.”
I am thrilled to report that I will be spending the second half of 2015 (which coincides with the first half of my first sabbatical from NIU!) as a Visiting Scholar at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte.
My plans include running a seminar on contemporary berimbau performance practice; leading a performance of berimbau chamber music with UFMG students; training Capoeira Angola; traveling to visit with berimbau ensembles in Bahia, São Paulo, and elsewhere; visiting berimbau luthiers such as Berimbau Brazil; and collaborating with Brazilian composers and artists to create further new repertoire for the contemporary berimbau.
Please let me know when you are coming to Bahia and I can meet you if you have time to visit my farm and lear how the beriba grow and to tek a berimba from the woods ..Peace and I hope to see you in Bahia .I’m doing my PHD at UFBA …Peace m cobra mansa
Olá Mestre,
Muito obrigado pela oferta de passar algum tempo juntos. Estamos em Bahia agora, de fato, em Serra Grande com Mestre Cabello. Vamos apresentar algumas peças de nosso repertório aqui numa festa esse sabado que vem, dia 25 de julho. Gostaria muito de convidar você passar por aqui, se você for disponível, porque no domingo, dia 26, os membros do meu grupo voltam por os EUA. Eu, porém, vou ficar em BH até dezembro, e gostaria muito de encontrar com você de qualquer jeito.