Fernando Berwig Silva
Graduate Student in Religion and Culture
Fernando Berwig Silva is a Ph.D. student in Religion and Culture at 51²è¹Ý and a Brazilian composer. A drummer since his teenage years, Fernando has earned his Master of Sacred Music (MSM) from Perkins School of Theology and also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Composition and Conducting from Paraná State University in Brazil. Berwig Silva has experience leading music in churches from diverse cultural backgrounds and has served three years as Coordinator of Arts Ministries at a Lutheran church in Brazil. He has premiered compositions at the intersection of church and concert music in Europe, the United States, and Brazil. Currently, Fernando is the Special Assistant to the Sacred Music Programs at Perkins School of Theology, and he also acts as a committee member for the Christian Congregational Music Conference that takes place biannually in Oxford, UK. His research engages with church music, decolonial, and Latin American scholarship; moreover, Berwig Silva is interested in understanding how ideas of race, ethnicity, and coloniality are expressed in music practices of Latin American diasporic Christian communities.
Coursework Advisor: Dr. Marcell Silva Steuernagel
Publications:
"Sounds Like Saudade: Eschatological Echoes in BrazilianGospel Music," Yale Music and Religion, vol. 10, no. 2: "The Power of Timbre in Religion" (forthcoming).
"'Appropriation or Solidarity?' Investigating Transnational Latina/o/x Church Music Practices," The Hymn, vol. 75, no. 4, Winter, (forthcoming).
"The Brazilian Hymnological Melting Pot: Investigating Ethnoracial Discourses in the Compilation of the Lutheran Hymnal Livro de Canto (2017)," Religions vol. 15, no. 5: 620, Special Issue: Race, Religion, and Nationalism in the 21st Century. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050620, 2024.
Hymnals:
Livro de Canto: Soli Deo Gloria (2017). Score edito. Editora Sinoadal, São Leopoldo, RS, Brazil.
Hymnology Entries:
"God Weeps" (2023), edited by J.R. Watson, The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology.
"This Little Light of Mine" (2023), written with Mykayla Turner, edited by C. Michael Hawn, History of Hymns, United Methodist Discipleship Ministries, .
Selected Premiered Compositions:
"A Mass for the Missing" (2023), Choir SAB, Handbells, Piano, Organ, and Cello, Perkins Chapel, Dallas, Texas. .
"Three Meditations on Christ’s Crucifixion" (2022), Piano, Perkins Chapel, Dallas, Texas, .
"PATER NOSTER" (2019), String Quartet, National Academy of Music "Prof. Pantcho Vladigerov," Sofia, Bulgaria.
"Jó Consolado" (2018), Orchestra and Choir SATB, Catedral Metropolitana de Curitiba, Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil.
Presentations:
"Avant-Garde Liberationist Music: A Lutheran Brazilian Perspective on Liturgical Musical Composition," May 2025, at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music, Nashville, Tennessee.
"Indigenismo and Church Music: Retracing Vatican Second’s Latin American Influences," November 2024, at the Religions in the Latina/o Americas Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, California.
"Singing Peace to Violence," November 2024, at the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, California.
"'Appropriate or Solidarity?' Investigating Transnational Latine Church Music Practices" July 2024, in the Emerging Scholars Forum, at the Hymn Society in Canada and the United States Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia.
"Black, White, Latinx: Ethnoracial and Ecclesiological Divides in Worship Practices of DFW Churches" April 2024, at the Annual Gathering of the International Ecclesiology & Ethnography Network, Atlanta, Georgia.
"The Brazilian Hymnological Melting-Pot: A Closer Look at the Brazilian Lutheran Hymnal" March 2024, at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music, Wheaton, Illinois.
"Futebol, My Religion" October 2023, at the Society for Ethnomusicology 2023 Annual Meeting, Ottawa, Canada.
"The Sacred World of Futebol" August 2023, at the Christian Congregational Music Conference, Oxford, UK.
"Black, White, Latinx: Racial Divides in Worship Practices" July 2023, with Marcell Silva Steuernagel and Mykayla Turner, at the Hymn Society in Canada and the United States Conference, Toronto, Canada.
"The Incarnation of the Sacred Spirit in John Tavener’s Music," October 2017, 3rd Annual Meeting of Scientific Initiation of UNESPAR, Campo Mourão/PR, Brasil.
Fellowships and Awards:
2024 The Hymn Society Emerging Scholar
2023-2024 and 2024-2025 Hispanic Theological Initiative En Conjunto Fellowship
2023 Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Society
2023 St. Paul’s Foundation Scholarship
2023 March of Remembrance Honorable Scholarship
2022 and 2023 Roger Daschner Prize in Sacred Music
2022 Ed E. and Gladys Hurley Foundation
