Mauricio Zottarelli

Coming from a musical family, Mauricio Zottarelli was born in Santos, SP, Brazil. Encouraged by his parents since early age, he always had a very strong interest in music, and started playing percussion even before he could talk. Mauricio started playing the drum kit as a hobby at the age of 14, working with several bands around his area/city. During his High School and College period (Computer Science major), he worked continuously in a lot of different musical environments. After his college graduation in 1997, Mauricio finally decided to go for a career in music. During the next two years, he took private lessons with drummers Gil Barreto, Fernando Gonalves (Gian e Giovanni) and Alaor Neves (Sa e Guarabira, Guilherme Arantes, Sergio Dias) and got some experience in teaching drum set playing for beginners. Also in this period he was playing extensively with his group, Himen Blues, and some other projects in Brazil.

In 1999, after auditioning at the Conservatrio Souza Lima in So Paulo-Brazil, he received a scholarship to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he later majored in Professional Music, with emphasis in Performance, Film Scoring and Arranging. Some of his instructors include John Ramsay, Rod Morgenstein,Larry Finn, Dave DiCenso, Yoron Israel, Jon Hazilla and Casey Scheuerell.

Mauricio has been doing a lot of playing in USA and Brazil lately, including performances and/or recordings with the Dig Trio, Marc Rossi Group, Matthew Nicholl, Greg Hopkins, Tim Ries, Sal DiFusco, Joe Santerre, Matt Chase Group, Michael Farquharson, James Peterson, Michael Graetzer, Sarah Brindell, Eunice Sim, Himen Blues, Altemar Dutra Jr., among others.

In 2003, Mauricio's jazz-fusion project - the DIG TRIO - released its long-awaited CD debut, which has been receiving great reviews from critics and audiences alike.