Mozambique: Another PROCULTURA scholarship holder completes his master’s degree in music

Orlando Fernão, 32 years old, completed his master’s degree in ethnomusicology and studies in popular music, at the University of Aveiro.

Before going to study in Portugal, he worked at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, in Human Resources Department, and as a teacher and volunteer pedagogical director at Levi – school of building musical capacity, of which he was a co-founder. The school, which began with the aim of founding the orchestra and bands of local church, has grown and is now open to the public, functioning as a free community school.

In 2011, he enrolled in the music degree course, and in 2019 he applied for the master’s course. “I wanted, with my music education, to expand my possibilities of developing the community work in music started at Levi”

Orlando hopes that the training will help legitimize him with public and private institutions, especially the Government of Matola and the Province of Maputo, in order to teach music to children without resources. Levi harvests and supplies musical instruments such as violin, saxophones, and others, to children who could not even think about the possibility of studying music, much less western classical music. “With the formation, I intend to follow this project together with theses governments.”

His thesis was entitled “Memories of Mozambique in Berlin: A Study of Repatriation of Sound Recordings”. He learned about the recording of songs in Mozambique, made by German anthropologists in 19931, and knowing the possibility of repatriation, he dedicated himself to starting the process. For Orlando, this repatriation can be useful for the recovery of practices that have already been forgotten over time, as well as for the improvement of current practices.

Orlando wants to continue his research in the area of archives and to do a doctorate, as a way of continuing his studies.

“Studying in Portugal was a unique opportunity. Without this support (from PROCULTURA), this training would not have been possible”, he underlined.

To their peers (others grantees) advises them to be focused: “Know what they want and where they want to travel”. He tells them to know the difficulties and to dedicate themselves to eliminating them. “Everything that is good and pleasant and yet perfect, takes its time. You have to be focused and persistent and not get distracted.”

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