More about Rob Curto:

Rob began his musical career in jazz, studying with Barry Harris, Fred Hirsch and Cliff Korman.  He soon began delving into world music and world-influenced jazz.  His first CD, "Bellow the Earch" is an exploration of European traditional music including styles as diverse as celtic, French musette, Italian tarantella, and Scandinavian folk music.  But his love for Brazilian music pulled him more and more in that direction, and he soon was dedicating himself intensely to that.

Rob is closely involved with Brazilian music both in Brazil and in New York.  In New York he is a founding member of a new forró band (dance music from the northeast of Brazil).  Rob also works with the New York Choro Ensemble, pianist Cliff Korman and "The Brazilian Tinge", and in a long-time collaboration with guitarist Billy Newman.

In Brazil he is a member of the Brasilia-based group Choro de Calango, the forró band Trio Perfumado, has played with members of Nó em Pingo d'Agua and Dois de Ouro, and has his own band based in Brasilia.  Rob has also performed in Brazil with musicians such as Leandro Braga, Adriano Giffoni and Marcio Bahia.

As a composer, in addition to writing for his own recordings, Rob has composed music for the Jim Henson Productions television program "Bear in the Big Blue House" currently aired on the Disney Channel, and "Biography" on Arts and Entertainment network.

Rob has performed his own music at the Conservatorio Pernambucano in Recife, Brazil (August 2001) and in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia.  He works with world-music artists such as Turkish musician Omar Faruk Tekbilek, tarantella percussionist and singer Alessandra Belloni, klezmer and jazz clarinetist David Krakauer, Frank London of the Klezmatics, and Fernando César of the choro group Dois de Ouro.

For those who read portuguese, Rob was the subject of a feature article in the newspaper "Correio Brasiliense" in Brasilia, Brazil, September, 21, 2002.      Read the article