Biography
Renato Velasco was born in Rio de Janeiro in the artistic district of Santa Teresa.
He began his classical guitar studies at the Villa-Lobos music school with Professor Nestor de Hollanda and took private lessons in harmony and improvisation with Adamo Prince, Nelson Farias and Flavio Goulart.
He began his career as a sideman guitarist in choro groups and dance orchestras in Rio. At the same time, he participated in concerts with local bands, playing MPB (Brazilian popular music) as well as his own compositions. He played acoustic and electric guitar, as well as the cavaquinho, a traditional four-stringed miniature guitar.
In 1987, he joined the prestigious orchestra of maestro Guio de Morais at the Music-Hall Scala in Rio.
The departure for France.
In 1989, he moved to France where he continued his career as a soloist, arranger, and conductor in various Brazilian music ensembles.
An interpreter in the tradition of guitarists like João Pernambuco, Garoto, Baden Powell or Marco Pereira, he is also a composer.
In Paris, he conducts research and creates new forms of composition, inspired by the French cultural atmosphere.
In Paris, he conducts research and creates new forms of composition, inspired by the French cultural atmosphere.
In 1992, he returned to Rio and settled back in his native neighborhood of Santa Teresa to run a cultural space, "La Cave de Paris", a piano bar with themed evenings, where live music groups of different styles perform: Brazilian music, but also French song, Latin American music, jazz and funk, groove etc.
This project lasted three years and was a great success.
Returning to France in 1995, he formed the Rio Dancing Orquestra with 8 musicians.
This orchestra provides lively entertainment at dances in many performance venues such as the New Morning, the Salle Globo, the Maison du Brésil, the Brasil Tropical, etc.
Photo caption: Jam session at La Cave de Paris, 1993 - Rio de Janeiro
In the 2000s, he decided to broaden his knowledge of jazz and classical music.
He honed his technique by studying classical guitar performance with Professor Michel Pons at the St Maur-les-Fossés Conservatory and by attending jazz improvisation workshops in Paris. In 2004, he earned his state diploma as a music teacher and established his first teaching workshops in Paris.
In 2005, he released his first solo album Brazilian guitar
Released on the Sunset-France label in collaboration with percussionist Dada Viana, this album is a collection of original compositions that take us on a journey through the different rhythms of Brazil: choro, samba, baião, musica caipira, etc.
In 2006, under the same label, he released a second album entitled Brazil Legendary Titles,
A collection of covers of internationally renowned Brazilian standards.
In the same year, Henry Lemoine publishers released his first guitar method entitled "The Brazilian guitar"detailing precisely about a hundred traditional rhythms from the five regions of Brazil.
Renato Velasco is an original guitarist whose musical work is a happy blend of traditional Brazilian music, improvised music and classical music.
This cultural fusion is what makes his compositions so rich and his concerts so magical.
From 2007 onwards, he began to expand his creativity with two new instruments: the 7-string guitar and the viola caipira, a 10-string viola.
At the same time, he began teaching classical guitar in music conservatories in the Ile-de-France region. Simultaneously, the ATLA school in Paris entrusted him with the Brazilian guitar classes.
In 2009, he launched the Camerata
by Renato Velasco, with a string trio (violin, viola and cello), flute and percussion, performing his compositions and arrangements.
In 2015, he launched the Brasil Social Club, a concert-ball orchestra performing a repertoire of traditional and modern music as well as Renato's new compositions.
