PERMANENT SEMINAR OF THE RESEARCH GROUP ON ETHNOMUSICOLOGY AND STUDIES IN POPULAR MUSIC
29.05.2026 | 4:30 pm | DeCA UA | João Branco Amphitheater | Online
Free entrance, both online and in presence.
Opção: an Ethnography of Samba in Belo Horizonte
Gabriel Arruda | INET-md/DeCA UA
In this edition of the Permanent Seminar, part of the findings of an ethnographic study carried out at Opção, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, will be presented. Opção is a venue devoted to the practice and culture of samba. Developed over the course of five years, through both research activities and musical practice, the study initially focused on what it means to “be a sambista” in this context, engaging with questions related to sonic practice, apprenticeship, identity, and memory. As the research unfolded, new themes began to shape the analysis. These include a reassessment of recurring interpretations of Afro-diasporic musical ensembles, a situated reading of ways of perceiving space, and an understanding of samba in its relational density, as a practice traversed by diverse diasporic experiences, forms of resistance, disputes over its roots, and nationalist/essentialist stereotypes. The presentation seeks to share some of these analytical shifts, showing how the ethnography at Opção has contributed to the development of new interpretive frameworks for thinking about samba, reinscribing it within a specific context that puts classical approaches in the literature under tension.
Gabriel Arruda | Gabriel Arruda is a PhD candidate and holds an MA in Music from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). He is currently undertaking a doctoral research stay at the University of Aveiro. Since 2021, he has been a member of GrEt–UFMG, the Ethnomusicology Study Group at the UFMG School of Music; since 2020, he has also been a member of the Coletivo de Sambistas Mestre Conga, a municipal association of instrumentalists, singers, composers, and researchers dedicated to samba culture in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, as well as of the community project Bloco do Bigode. Among the research and outreach projects in which he has taken part, particular note should be made of the Registration of Samba as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Belo Horizonte (2022–2025), which resulted in the dossier Horizontes do Samba and in the official recognition of samba as municipal heritage. As an instrumentalist, performing as a cavaquinho player and guitarist, he is part of the groups Na Cadência do Samba and Bloco do Bigode, taking part in concerts, recordings, and Carnival parades.