Silvia always knew she wanted to be a singer. “My first memories are of singing into a tape recorder and listening back to it with my aunt who babysat me for the first few years of my life. My toddler years were basically a string of unending listening parties where together we appreciated 70s artists. Her favorites were the Beatles, the BeeGees and old boleros.”

It was this eclectic mix of music, combined with her dad’s love of bossa nova, that solidified her love for world music. In college, she dabbled in salsa, singing the lead vocals for Adelante, a band created by the respected ethnomusicologist and author Lise Waxer. But Brazilian music was already beginning to take a prime place in her musical life. Singing in jazz combos, she found herself gravitating toward the bossa nova standards and immediately began studying Portuguese at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne.

After college, Silvia sang jazz but it wasn’t until meeting other Brazilians and Brazilian music-minded musicians that she began focusing on learning the craft of Brazilian popular music. In 2008, she founded Beaba do Samba, a band that became a permanent fixture on the Chicago world music scene performing at respected venues and festivals like the Old Town School of Folk Music, the Logan Square Arts Festival, the Chicago World Music Festival, the Chicago Latino Film Festival and the Millennium Park Summer Music festival at the beautiful Pritzker Pavilion. In 2016, she participated in the album ‘Aquarela,’ a compilation of children’s songs arranged and produced by the incomparable Paulinho Garcia.

In addition to singing Brazilian music, Silvia’s voice has appeared in national advertisements, most notably the 2014 World Cup campaign for State Farm that reimagined Patrick Hernandez classic ‘Born to be Alive.’ Silvia also plays Brazilian percussion, focusing on the tamborim, completing studies with Carnaval-style samba masters like Mestre Ailton Nunes of the Mangueira Samba School, Dudu Fuentes of Monobloco and Bangalafumenga, Jorge Alabe and Mestre Jonas of Mocidade Independente. She currently studies voice under the tutelage of Fabiana Cozza and is working toward a performance associate’s degree. She resides in Chicago.