Laura Rizzotto
Laura Rizzotto | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Laura Rizzotto |
| Born | July 18, 1994 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Genres | Pop, folk pop, pop rock |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist |
| Instrument(s) | Vocal, acoustic guitar, ukulele, piano |
| Years active | 2011–present |
| Website | http://www.laurarizzotto.com |
Laura Rizzotto born July 18, 1994) is a pop singer-songwriter piano player and acoustic guitarist, born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She debuted in 2011 with Made in Rio, released by Universal Music Brazil, which included hit single "Friend in Me". In 2014, she self-released her second album Reason to Stay.[1]
Life and career
Laura Rizzotto is a recording and performing Music artist, a 7-year trained ballet dancer, an activist and a professional songwriter, with over 100 (one hundred) original songs published by herself, most of them with English lyrics. Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Laura started playing the piano at the age of 8 and wrote her first ballad “Reason Why”, at the age of 11, when she used to live in the city of Edina, in Minnesota - USA. She taught herself how to play the guitar and the ukulele, at her early teens.
Laura started performing her own songs in the music scene of Rio de Janeiro, at the age of 15. Her first record deal, with Universal Music Brazil, came up at the age of 16, just after a record executive saw her performing live in the legendary venue Modern Sound, in Copacabana. Her debut studio album “Made in Rio”, released in 2011, was produced by British musician Paul Ralphes and the track “Who You Are” by Brazilian jazz legend Eumir Deodato.
“Made in Rio” was critically acclaimed and extensively featured in the Brazilian media. Laura was a guest artist in the main Brazilian TV shows and promoted the album with live performances in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, with a 6-piece band. The single “Fish Out of Water” was included in the soundtrack of a popular soap opera from Brazil’s major TV network, Rede Globo.
Laura opened up for former Disney star Demi Lovato, at her major concert in Brazil, for 7,000 people, in April 2012. Shortly after, she was offered a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music. In a bold move, she decided to give a break at her rising career in Brazil and move to Boston, to pursue a Bachelor of Music degree. She was placed at Berklee’s Dean’s list for 3 consecutive semesters and featured live in radio shows, in Massachusetts.
In June 2013, she was a Brand USA guest artist at the 2013 International Pow Wow Expo, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where she performed live for an audience of 6,000 travel delegates from the U.S. and 70 other countries.
In August, 2013, Laura moved from Boston to Los Angeles, where she recorded her studio album, “Reason To Stay”, self-released in January 16, 2014. The album features 11 original tracks written and published by Laura, 3 of them in collaboration with her brother Lucas Rizzotto. “Reason To Stay” was produced in Los Angeles and Tokyo by Nicolas Farmakalidis and mastered by Grammy award winner sound engineer Brad Blackwood.
Laura graduated from California Institute of the Arts in December 2014 and moved to New York. She has received a scholarship to pursue a Masters Degree in Columbia University, in Manhattan, New York, where she lives and performs with a Berklee alumni band. She is currently working on the production her 3rd album, scheduled to be released in 2017.
Personal life
Laura currently lives in New York City, where she is a graduate student at Columbia University. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in California Institute of the Arts, in December, 2014.
Activism
Laura Rizzotto has launched a non-profit educational and environmental effort to help restoring the endangered Brazilian national tree, “Pau Brasil”, also known as the Music Tree. The project enhances the powerful interconnection between a global society and its history, an economy, an ecology, healing properties discovered by traditional knowledge, an endangered plant and a top quality music tool.
“Reason To Stay” release has served as a driving force to promote environmental education and a greater public awareness regarding the urgent need of conservation and restoration of Brazilian national tree, also known as “The Music Tree”, which is listed as an endangered species and currently menaced by the bow-for-stringed-instrument industry.[2]
In 2015, Laura wrote a song called “Miracle” as a tribute to road traffic victims. “Miracle” was selected to be featured at events during the Second Global High Level Conference organized by the United Nations happening in Brasília on November 17, 2015. She has performed this tribute live, in the Brazilian National Congress building, raising awareness of safe driving through Art.
Discography
- Made in Rio (2011)
- Reason to Stay (2014)
Tours
- Made in Rio (2012)
- Reason to Stay (2014)
Headlining
- 2012: Made in Rio
- 2014: Reason to Stay
References
External links
- Orphaned articles from July 2014
- 1994 births
- 21st-century American singers
- American acoustic guitarists
- American female guitarists
- American female pop singers
- American female singer-songwriters
- Brazilian female singers
- American folk guitarists
- American folk singers
- American pianists
- American pop guitarists
- American pop singers
- American singer-songwriters
- Brazilian singer-songwriters
- Living people
- Singers from California
- People from Los Angeles County, California
- People from Ventura County, California
- 21st-century American guitarists
- Songwriters from California