Name: Mitchell Wendt
Type of Project: Education Abroad
1.
My STEP project was participating in the Brazilian Experience, which consisted of studying Brazilian culture, language, and music on site in Salvador and Rio de Janeiro. In doing so, I attended numerous concerts, master classes from local music and dance professionals, and performances with classmates within various schools to exchange music with their students.
2.
On top of learning about the beautiful country of Brazil, I was able to see how culture is a reflection of its people. I realized the beauty of all of the different types of people in Brazil coming together to form a culture that is not solely based on the European, African, or indigenous populations in the country but a culmination of a uniquely Brazilian culture. Through diversity, unity is created, which has allowed me to see first hand why we need to overcome cultural differences in the United States. I would argue that Brazil is even more of a “melting pot” than the US, and Brazil has definitely integrated every culture better into its mainstream culture than the US has. I knew that life wasn’t about status before, but I learned more about what life is about: making relationships with the people around you, despite differences. This isn’t to say that racism and prejudices are nonexistent in Brazil, but I saw that Brazilians have a simpler attitude towards living with other people and I saw how they culturally flourished. This, I found, is a key reason why Brazilians simply seemed happier than people in the US, and I hope to bring that happiness into my life in the future.
3.
The main avenue for these realizations was through the performances that we gave to the various schools. We performed at very different schools, from preschools up to high schools and colleges as well as from (nearly) all black schools to all white schools. Probably one of the most sober experiences of my life was going from Evaristo High school to ACBEU Maple Bear Preschool, both in Salvador but vividly different experiences, back to back. At Evaristo, I had a blast performing for them in their outdoor gym, as they hadn’t seen the instruments or heard the music we were playing before, and they really seemed to enjoy what we were doing. They even responded with their own fantastic performances: they presented us with music from their own instruments such as the berimbau, they did gymnastic moves that were crazier than what I’ve seen in the US, and they even invited us to Samba dance with them. It basically felt like a party in the middle of their school day, and it was an absolute blast.
But when we went to ACBEU Maple Bear just shortly after than experience, it felt like I had crossed to the other side of the planet even though we were still in Salvador. ACBEU Maple Bear is much more similar to the kind of preschool/elementary school that I went to: well-kept, uptight, almost exclusively white, and definitely privileged. While their kids seemed to enjoy what we did, the whole environment was definitely much more contained. After seeing how much fun both I and the children had at Evaristo, something just felt wrong at Maple Bear. Rather than being excited about seeing something different, the students were more or less confused. Because the school was so similar to the education I had growing up, I felt like that I must have done the same things when I was their age.
Of course there was an age difference between these two schools, but if anything the younger children should’ve been more excited about our performances than the older high schoolers. It was weird to realize that it wasn’t the underprivileged schools but the privileged schools that made me realize their cultural differences. There was simply so much joy at Evaristo that I didn’t notice the differences with my own education, but when I saw how uptight Maple Bear was it became so clear. Why couldn’t they just accept how different our music was and get the same joy that the students at the high school did? As thankful as I have been for the education that I have received in my life and the opportunities it has given me, I’ve now learned about the shortcomings of growing up in such an environment.
These realizations also carried with me as I went to the on-campus classes at OSU as well as the various master classes and concerts throughout the trip. Being a music course, I learned deeply about the styles of music that originated from Brazil. Whether it be choro, samba, or bossa nova, their music stuck with me a lot more than a lot of the music I grew up with in the US. I also learned about a cool concept called “cultural cannibalism” which describes why Brazilian music is so unique. Through cultural cannibalism, musicians were able to take in the various musical influences (jazz, US folk, European classical, indigenous styles), digest them, and produce something inspired by a combination of all of its influences but at the same time uniquely Brazilian. This concept (as well as my entire visit to Salvador) was shown most memorably in the Bale Folclorico da Bahia, a performance rooted in a variety of Brazilian dances and music. Every movement of the performance reminded me of something that I saw earlier in Salvador. The individual experiences were clear, but the whole experience was so grand that there isn’t any world to describe it other than Brazilian. I write more about it here, in a Concert Review I wrote for the class: MUS3360 Concert Review-2jodzf2
4.
With these experiences in hand, I already feel like I am a better member of society. I will now be able to move forward and accept different people in my life. The connections that I made in Brazil will remind me of the joy that I can have in my life by engaging with different people. I hope that as I start taking different people in my life, other people will follow so that the United States can be closer to the level of unity and joy that Brazil has in its diversity. I have also changed as a musician, as I better understand that music serves as an avenue of expression of people. As I continue to perform in ensembles at OSU, I will have a better understanding of the purpose of music in general, and what kind of impact it can have on people.
