As a child, Viva remembers looking at the cover of her parents’ Sergio Mendes’ "Look Around" album and longing to go there someday. She was completely enamored by it all: girls in knit mini-dresses, guys in peg-leg suits and dark glasses drinking wine, shading themselves with colorful parasols on the bright yellow Brazilian hillside, and Sergio himself, impeccable in his white suit and straw boater. Not to even mention the music inside, which was irresistibly swinging, impossibly cool. Viva grew up far from that in Phoenix, Arizona but she got to play some pretty great music there because her grade school teacher, who was an old hippie from the 70’s, taught her how to play guitar.

When Viva grew up she traveled extensively in Brazil and Latin America and then moved to New York in 1996. She started playing samba drums and by some fantastic luck met Cyro Baptista, percussionist wizard extraordinaire for Paul Simon, Sting and Herbie Hancock among others. He was starting a new band called Beat The Donkey "BTD" (it means Giddi-up!) She instantly became a founding member of this innovative tour-de-force Brazilian Funk-Rock-Dance spectacle and spent the next 9 years touring playing percussion, guitar, violin and singing. BTD first performed by opening for John Zorn at the Knitting Factory. They went on to play hundreds of shows at places like Summerstage in Central Park, The Kennedy Center, Bonnaroo, New Orleans Jazz Fest and Lincoln Center. They toured Europe and even performed for over 25,000 people at a festival in Morocco.

One night Cyro called her from San Francisco and said "Viva, tonight I played with Carlos Santana, and you know what? I like you just as much!" Indeed, Viva’s independent spirit and guitar that screams for freedom became a distinctive voice on the American jam band scene. She has jammed with Medeski, Martin and Wood, Trey Anastasio and Jo Jo Kuo (Fela Kuti). In 2003 musical composer genius Peter Apfelbaum asked her to join his NY Hieroglyphics where she has learned more about music than she ever dreamed possible.

One night, Trey said to her, "You have an amazing stage presence, when can I come and see your own project?" But Viva did not yet have one. Although she wrote songs, she never wanted to be "the girl singer". She was singing more and more in BTD though, and knew she needed training. Her teacher informed her that her voice is a freak of nature and with 3 years training in the art of Bel Canto, she is finally ready to use it…girl singer, shmirl singer, it’s all just music!

During all this time, Viva also played in countless excellent, though less well-known bands, most notably all-girl international dance music sensatations Paprika, who have performed twice at the Michigan Womyn’s Music festival. She even learned a little lead samba drum and conducted 20 unit drum corps in NYC’s great parades (Halloween, Pride, Mermaid). She has been selected for the prestigious Songwriter’s circle at the Bitter End and The Brooklyn Songwriter’s exchange. For the past year, she has been touring the Northeast with her power rock trio singing story songs and playing rhythm and rock guitar over Afro-Brazilian, Jamaican and American grooves. She just finished recording a 5 new tracks with Peter Apfelbaum and the NY Hieroglyphics and will be releasing her first full-length record "Electric Cabaret" in June, 2008.