Viviane Louro

We sat down with Viviane Louro to discuss her career so far and thoughts around music and education.

To begin with, I would like to know details about yourself and some background on your music journey.

I am determined, art-loving, curious about life and the human mind, indignant about the injustices of the world, idealistic, and aware of the difficulties of our changing brutalist reality. I’m almost always tired of paddling against the tide, aware that happiness does not exist, but rather moments that are worth living and that give meaning to our existence. A person who knows that she will die without seeing the world better than she ever dreamed of but fighting to the end so that it can exist one day, if only in our desire.

I was born with a disease that is not diagnosed until today, but that affects the entire musculature of the body. When I was a kid, my hands wouldn't open, and I got a toy piano when I was two so I started trying to open my hands to play. My mother seeing this started to encourage me in music and, at the age of 4, she found a teacher available to give me piano lessons. And so, I found my great love...the music.

The first musical memory I really have is playing with a little piano I won and singing songs from Noah's ark album (maximum 5 years old). I also remember the first day I sat in front of a real piano. I remember seeing my hands on the yellow keyboard.

At the age of 12, I started giving piano lessons to my brother, who was at the time the age of 4. I was able to teach him to read treble and bass clefs through the games he played on the blackboard with drawings. When I was 15, I already taught piano and theory, privately, and everyone said I taught well, so I never stopped.

How would you describe your relationship with music and education?

My relationship with music is the highest kind of love...
In my private life my mother always encouraged me and did everything so that I could become a musician. In my musical life, there were some teachers who changed my path.

Education is currently my livelihood and where I fulfill myself as a person. Currently I think that working with education is much more important than just playing, because I believe that I can make a difference in the world by teaching than by making music.

My purpose in music education is to disseminate neuroscience and inclusive education throughout the national musical territory. To serve as an inspiration in the lives of my students and to learn how to be a better teacher through teaching.

My teaching style is flexible. I do not believe in a single or closed methodology, because people are different, and have different ways of holding different skills and difficulties. Therefore, for me, it is not possible to have a single way of teaching. My type of work is based on studying each student and their needs, difficulties, and desires to set up a methodological path, always having the student themself as the protagonist of this path. My basis is neuroscience and research on how the brain learns, so that it can enhance learning in an individualized way.

Have you ever faced any gender equality issues? How did you overcome these issues?

I think machismo is so structural that we don't even notice much. I never realized prejudice for being a woman, but a lot for having a disability and for having an appearance that did not correspond to what people expected of a virtuous great researcher or educator.

What changes do you think need to be made to empower women and girls in the field of music?

We can talk more about it in the music business. We offer more opportunities in the areas of composition, regency, arrangement and production. I think that in the performance area the gender is more equal than in the others previously described.

Message to the next generation

Don't give up...resist...never let others tell you what you can and can't do. Music is for everyone, FOR SURE!