Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Lorna Zemke is assisting Dr. Walênia Silva with her study on Brazilian folk music.
Dr. Walênia Silva , a music education professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is living in the Motherhouse guest house (St. Anne) while working with Sister Lorna Zemke, Silver Lake College music professor. Silva is helping bring Brazilian folk music to the attention of her country’s music educators and students.
For the past eight years, Silva has studied hundreds of Brazilian folk songs, many with roots in African-Brazilian and Indian-Brazilian tradition, and narrowed them down to 60 work songs, singing games and children’s songs. She plans to transcribe these songs from audio material, analyzing and cataloging them, with Sister Lorna’s help, for use in music classrooms according to the Kodály Concept of music education.
