Maria Camillo Booking, choro famoso

Mike Marshall & Choro Famoso

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BIOS:

Brian Rice, Percussion

Brian Rice is a freelance percussionist with a B.M. in Percussion Performance and Ethnomusicology from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Brian has performed for audiences across North America and Europe with numerous ensembles including Balafon Marimba Ensemble, Kaila Flexer and Next Village, Jim Scott, Bochinche, Sonando, Donald Byrd, Willy and Lobo, The Paul Winter Consort, Richard Egues, Orquestra La Moderna Tradicion, Antonio Calogero and Wake the Dead. In addition, Brian appears on recordings with many of these artists as well as with Mike Marshall, Steve Gadd, Tony Levin and Jay Thomas to name a few. Brian resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently performing in the San Francisco production of the Lion King. Brian Rice is a sought after percussionist for his wealth of experience and skill in a multitude of styles. His love of Brazilian music began at the Interlochen Arts Academy eighteen years ago and led him to follow a path of study into world music and Brazilian music in particular. Upon moving to Seattle in 1994, Brian founded and directed Samba Seattle, a 90-member parade ready escola de samba. Brian assisted the great Brazilian instrumentalist and composer Jovino Santos Neto in the Latin Ensemble class at the Cornish college of Music. After moving to the Bay Area to expand his freelance career, Brian began working with many of the local musicians playing everything from Brazilian, Cuban and Middle-Eastern music, to jazz, klezmer and Celtic. In 2003 Brian traveled to Brazil to study with renowned Panderio player Marcos Susano.

Andy Connell, Clarinet and Saxophone

Andy Connell has performed in ensembles ranging from jazz to classical to Brazilian music. Besides his work with Mike Marshall and Choro Famoso, Andy has performed with artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Dave Leibman, Lou Rawls, Jennifer Holliday, and Claudia Villela. Andy has also appeared at the Monterey, MontreuxÜDetroit, and San Francisco jazz festivals, and at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC. He has recorded for the Musical Heritage Society, Intrada, Adventure Music, Earthbeat! Traveler, and Acoustic Levitation labels. In addition to his work as a performer, Andy is an ethnomusicologist whose primary research focuses on issues of musical identity and globalization in Brazilian popular instrumental music. His fascination with choro and all things Brazilian began over two decades ago, a connection that only intensified during his first trip to Brazil in 1992. From 1999-2000, Andy lived in Rio de Janeiro doing field research for his PhD dissertation from UCLA. He is currently an assistant professor of music at James Madison University in Virginia and is working on a book on Brazilian jazz.

Colin Walker, 7-String Guitar

Specializing in the seven-string guitar, Colin Walker has dedicated over a decade to learning the rich musical language of Brazil. He has studied both in Brazil and in the U.S. with performers such as Guinga, Mauricio Carrilho, Arnaldino do Cavaco and João Junqueira. Building on a close study of samba and choro masters, he has developed a nuanced accompaniment style reflecting his diverse stylistic background.

Founder of the Los Angeles Choro Ensemble, Walker has participated in various recording projects. He has also performed and taught at a variety of southern California venues such as UCLA's Royce Hall, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Occidental College, and the Skirball Cultural Center.

He is currently completing a two-year study of Brazilian percussion with Carlinhos Pandeiro de Ouro as part of the Durfee Foundation's Master Musician Grant program.

Mike Marshall, Mandolin

Mike Marshall is one of the most accomplished and versatile acoustic musicians performing today, a master of mandolin, guitar and violin whose playing is as imaginative and adventurous as it is technically thrilling. Able to swing gracefully from jazz to classical to bluegrass to Latin styles, he puts his stamp on everything he plays with an unusually potent blend of intellect, humor and emotion - a combination of musical skill and versatility rare in the world of American instrumentalists.

Now living in Oakland, California, Mike grew up in Central Florida, where throughout his teens he played and taught bluegrass mandolin, fiddle and guitar. In 1979, at the age of 19, he was invited to join the original David Grisman Quintet in the SF Bay Area. That association quickly lead to his recording and touring with some of the top names in acoustic music today including Tony Rice, Mark O' Connor, Stephane Grappelli, Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer.

Mike has since played on hundreds of acoustic-music recordings both as a featured artist and performer. His 1982 CD, Gator Strut , is a classic example of a new generation of bluegrass virtuoso instrumentalists forging new directions in American instrumental music.

Today Mike can be heard on the Car Talk soundtrack recording every week on NPR along with Earl Scruggs, David Grisman and Tony Rice. In addition Mike composed and recorded the theme music for the San Francisco based radio program Forum heard daily on KQED radio.

One of his more recent CDs is a mandolin duet project with Chris Thile from the group Nickel Creek, entitled Into The Cauldron , on Sugar Hill records. This CD was listed in the top ten of Amazon.com's favorite recordings for 2003.

In 1983, Mike and violinist Darol Anger formed a partnership and established the band Montreux with pianist Barbara Higbie, bassist Michael Manring, and steel-drum virtuoso Andy Narell. The group released five recordings on the Windham Hill label and toured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan from 1984 to 1990.

In 1986, while still a member of Montreux, Mike founded a classical string quartet of mandolin family instruments -- two mandolins, mandola and mandocello. The Modern Mandolin Quartet released four recordings for Windham Hill Records that redefined the mandolin in a classical-music setting. In 1995, the Quartet made its Carnegie Hall debut and, in 1996, received a "Meet The Composer" grant from the Lila Wallace Foundation.

Meanwhile, Mike had traveled to Brazil and began a love affair with Brazilian 'choro' music, a delightful musical form that combines virtuosic instrumental playing with rhythmically complex improvisations, not unlike bluegrass or early swing music.

Mike embarked on an in-depth study of the style that resulted in the CD, Brasil (Duets). This recording showcases Mike at the top of his form as a mandolinist and features many of his musical pals, Andy Narell, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, bassist Michael Manring, and keyboardist and flutist Jovino Santos Neto.

Mike has continued to push the boundaries of acoustic instrumental music. After tapping Fleck and Meyer for the Brasil (Duets) project, he collaborated with the two masters on a 1997 Sony Classical release titled Uncommon Ritual . The album charted on the Billboard Top Ten Classical Chart, where it remained for more than three months, and the ensemble opened the Chamber Music Series 1998 season at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. Mike worked with Meyer yet again on the 1999 Short Trip Home , another Sony Classical recording with violin virtuoso Joshua Bell and mandolin wizard Sam Bush.

Darol Anger also remains an important collaborator for Mike. Together they have recorded under the moniker Psychograss with guitarist David Grier, banjo player Tony Trischka and bassist Todd Phillips. In addition the two released several CDs on the Compass Records label with their quartet as well as a live duet CD entitled At Home and on the Range .

Mike has two holiday recordings to his credit: In 1998, he released Midnight Clear , a solo guitar recording, and in 2000 he recorded A Christmas Heritage with banjo player Alison Brown, Darol Anger, mandolinist Tim O'Brien, Todd Phillips and pianist-composer Phil Aaberg. That band, called New Grange, also released an eponymous CD on Compass Records.

As he does so engagingly in music, Mike also applies his adventurous aesthetic to his two principal hobbies: wine making and food. Already known as one of the best cooks in the music business, he has been trading guitar lessons for cooking lessons from Cal Peternell, head chef at Berkeley's famed Chez Panisse restaurant.

Back in the music realm, Mike has just released a second CD with Chris Thile entitled Live Duets on Sugar Hill Records, as well as a traditional Brazilian CD with his group Choro Famoso and a CD with pianist Jovino Santos Neto, entitled Serenata , featuring the music of Hermeto Pascoal (Brazil's most important musician/composer living today), on Mike's own label, Adventure Music.

Mike is now working on further recording collaborations with Darol Anger, and he performs regularly in duet settings with Darol, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile, Hamilton de Holanda as well as with his groups Choro Famoso and Psychograss.

Along the teaching front, Mike has created the Mandolin Symposium along with fellow mandolinists David Grisman and Chris Thile. The event is a weeklong educational camp at the University California in Santa Cruz where five of the greatest mandolinists today teach over 150 mandolin students from around the world.