Mario Da Silva Records Music By Heitor Villa-Lobos, Garoto, and Newly Commissioned Works By Three Well-Known Guitar Composers.

Recently, we had a new guest artist visiting our showroom to record some videos for our YouTube channel. Brazilian guitarist, Mario da Silva, has loved music from a very young age. He grew up listening to Brazilian bossa nova and artists such as Baden Powell.

Mario is also a researcher specializing in contemporary Brazilian composers. In 2002 he earned his Master's degree from the UNIRO (The Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro). Later in 2013, he earned his Ph.D. in composition attending the same university. Since 1991, Mario has been working as a professor at the Paraná State University (EMBAP-School of Music and Fine Arts).

This was Mario's first recording session in our showroom. He recorded six pieces, five of which are works written by famous Brazilian composers: Heitor Villa-Lobos, Sérgio Assad, Garoto, and Geraldo Vespar.

In his first video, you can hear Mario playing Heitor Villa-Lobos' "Prelude No. 3". For this piece, he chose a 1969 David Rubio SP/IN guitar. David Rubio guitars were played by Julian Bream very early and very late in his career. This particular instrument is an excellent example of his earlier work known primarily from his "Bream" period. It was an excellent choice to play "Prelude No. 3" on this guitar since Julian Bream was also famous for his interpretation of the same piece. Mario also recorded Villa-Lobos'  "Etude No. 11", but for this particular video, he chose a modern classical guitar - a 2022 Mario Aracama SP/AR. This guitar has a friendly responsiveness to it - an immediate but not harsh attack, and a velvety, full-quality sound. It has a lovely palette of timbral colors with the slightest changes in the right-hand position. Notice, that in the middle section of "Etude No. 11", Mario used a special arpeggio technique which includes playing the last three notes of each group with the "a" finger.

While at GSI, Mario also recorded "Um Olhar Pela Janela" by Sérgio Assad. This is relatively a new piece (written in 2020), but what is especially interesting about it is the fact that it was commissioned and dedicated to Mario! In this video, you can hear Mario playing on a 2003 Antonio Raya Pardo SP/CSAR. This luthier was born in Jaen but has lived in Granada since childhood. Until his unfortunate recent passing, Raya Pardo was one of the most important names in the Granada school of guitar-making. The sound of his guitar featured in the video is truly impressive! It's crisp and loud with a soulful Granada flair. 

In his fourth video, you can hear another interesting piece that was written for and dedicated to Mario. It's "Bossachoro" by Brazilian composer, Geraldo Vespar. For this piece, Mario chose a 1964 Jose Oribe SP/CSAR. Oribe, along with Manuel Velazquez was considered one of North America's veteran builders of the past half-century. This is a Madrid-style guitar reminiscent of Ramirez Contreras, or Bernabe in its tonal and structural characteristics. 

Garoto was a very important composer and guitarist of Brazilian choro active in the first half of the 20th century. In the next video, you can hear Mario's performance Garoto's "Lamentos Do Morros", which was recorded on a 2004 Sakurai-Kohno "Professional-J" CD/CSAR. This is the cedar-top version of the well-known spruce guitar by this maker.

Mario finished his recorded session with "From My Window" Turkish-American guitarist and composer, Celil Refik Kaya. This piece was also written for and dedicated to Mario. In this video, Mario plays on a 2003 Jose Ramirez "Centenario" CD/CSAR - "Centenario" means 100 years, and here it represents the 100-year anniversary of guitar making of the Ramirez family. The guitar is made from the workshop's finest materials which they have collected over many, many years.