Mauricio Carrilho

Maurício Carrilho ranks among the leading figures in today’s choro scene. He has served as arranger or instrumentalist alongside Elizeth Cardoso, Nara Leão, Altamiro Carrilho, Francis Hime, Chico Buarque, Paulinho da Viola, Teca Calazans, and Chiquinho do Acordeon. Together with poet Paulo César Pinheiro he created more than forty songs and, in 1995, collected two Sharp prizes—Best Group and Best Instrumental Album—for the recording O Trio, made with Paulo Sérgio Santos and Pedro Amorim.

Born to Álvaro Carrilho and nephew of Altamiro Carrilho, he grew up surrounded by music and began formal study at age nine under Dino Sete Cordas. A year later he shifted to lessons with Meira, the teacher who left the deepest mark on his playing. In 1976 he met siblings Luciana Rabello and Raphael Rabello at Sovaco de Cobra, the North Side choro stronghold. The following year the three musicians joined Celsinho do Pandeiro to launch the group Os Carioquinhas; after the ensemble’s first album, Carrilho abandoned medical school to pursue music full time.

In 1979 Joel Nascimento invited Os Carioquinhas to accompany his reading of Radamés Gnattali’s “Retratos.” When Galo Preto’s acoustic guitarist Luiz Otávio joined, the musicians formed Camerata Carioca, a band that refreshed the choro idiom by blending it with chamber-music techniques. The group issued three albums and earned multiple awards.

Carrilho began writing arrangements in 1978 at Nara Leão’s request, preparing every chart for her collaboration with Roberto Menescal. His composing career opened in 1967 when he supplied the A section of a maxixe that Altamiro Carrilho completed and recorded. After meeting Paulo César Pinheiro in 1989 the pair produced forty joint works. In 1999, with Luciana Rabello and João Carino, he established Acari Records, a label devoted to choro.