June 10, 2021 – The U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has honored Dr. Mark Tonelli, assistant professor of applied guitar and coordinator of the Guitar Studies Program at Millikin University, with a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to Brazil for the 2021-22 academic year.
Tonelli will serve as a visiting professor at Universidade Federal de Uberlandia in Uberlandia, Minas Gerais. For four months, he will teach courses in jazz ensemble, jazz guitar, and music entrepreneurship and conduct research into the arts and political movement Clube da Esquina.
“It was surreal to find out that I had been awarded because, traditionally, the Fulbright Scholarship is difficult to get,” Tonelli said. “I will be teaching at the Federal University of Uberlandia in their Popular Music program which would be equivalent to our Commercial Music program at Millikin. It’s a new program they are trying to get off the ground.”
As a Fulbright Scholar, Tonelli will share knowledge and foster meaningful connections across communities in the United States and Brazil. In addition to directing a jazz ensemble and teaching jazz guitar studies, Tonelli will teach arts entrepreneurship to help students build strategies for their careers.
“Essentially, the things I do at Millikin I will be bringing to Brazil. Many South American countries do not have access to this type of information and the more their students are able to do, and the more versatile they are able to be, the better chances they will have in developing a successful career,” Tonelli said.
Tonelli says Brazilian music and jazz studies often go together because the two are derived from the same base which is African music. “They had local music mixed with African music which formed a samba, which later mixed with jazz that became a bossa nova. A lot of Brazilian music has elements of jazz in it and a lot of American jazz has elements of Brazilian music in it. The two cultures have had this beautiful mix and exchange,” he said.
Since arriving at Millikin University in 2016, Tonelli has expanded the Millikin Guitar Studies Program by adding the Electric Guitar Ensemble that focuses on jazz, rock and pop styles. In addition to teaching applied lessons and guitar pedagogy, he teaches jazz improvisation and serves as professor for Arts Café, a course he created where students learn how to operate a live performance venue.
“I love Brazilian music and it is something I have been studying seriously for the past seven years, but I have been playing it for most of my career because that is what jazz musicians do … they play Brazilian music, it’s part of their repertoire,” Tonelli said. “I will be bringing more of the authentic American jazz side to what they are doing, but I will also be learning from them.”
Tonelli plans to perform in concert with some of the faculty members as well as perform throughout the surrounding area of the university. He will also travel to other areas of Brazil to host workshops and concerts, including Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
In terms of his teachings, Tonelli hopes that playing jazz will open a new world for the students. “One thing that is unique about jazz musicians … if you have a group of trained jazz musicians from anywhere in the world and drop them on a stage together, with no rehearsal, they could play a high-level concert,” he said. “I’m hoping to help the students develop that repertoire that they could then use and take with them anyplace in the world and function as a jazz musician. Jazz is a stylistic portal that allows you to work on other musical styles … it opens up other doors.”
