Carolina Benigno

Rute Carolina da Cunha Benigno is an accordionist, music educator, and PhD candidate in Music at the University of Aveiro, specialising in Ethnomusicology. She holds a degree in Music with a specialisation in Accordion from the Federal University of Paraíba. At the same institution, she completed a Master’s degree in Music with an emphasis on Music Education, focusing her research on the educational trajectories of professional sanfoneiros (accordion players). She was a member of the research group “Práticas de Ensino e Aprendizagem da Música em Múltiplos Contextos” (PENSAMus). She is also a permanent teacher of Keyboard Instruments (Piano, Keyboard, and Accordion) at the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Norte. In addition, she has an artistic career closely connected to Brazilian popular music, particularly forró. Her main areas of study include popular music education, forró, music and migration, musical labour, and transnational music festivals.

Doctoral project

Title
“Se o Baião Vai, Eu Vou”: Brazilian Diaspora and Transnationalism in Forró Festivals of the 21st Century

Advisor
Maria do Rosário Pestana

Abstract
Forró is a patrimonialized performative practice in Brazil that, in the 21st century, has reached a transnational scale, with a strong presence in European countries (57 festivals in 2023). In this context, policies of reception intersect with the cultural practices of migrants. The “will to truth” is expressed differently in the discourses that legitimise forró in the transnational context, generating tensions around its categorisation while also expanding circuits of musical labour. I bring a theoretical focus on “heritage festivals” to combine the public space dimension of festivals with the symbolic and affective dimension of an intangible heritage shared transnationally. My aim is to understand the dynamics of relationality and cooperation between Brazilian migrants and native populations in host countries, as enabled by mobile music and dance traditions. As an accordionist, Brazilian, and participant in forró festivals, I will undertake a multi-sited, collaborative research project (Lisbon, Porto, and Berlin), placing performative ethnography at its core.

Keywords
Music and dance; Mobility; Transnationalism; Discursive construction; Heritage festival; Forró.

Funding
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (2024.02991.BD)