Composer, Singer, Keyboardist
My history with music started when I was 3 years old with a toy piano; 4 years later, I began music classes. First with acoustic guitar and later organ, piano and keyboard. Later on, voice became my main instrument. I also studied bass, drums and percussion instruments.
My professional career started when I was fifteen. By that time I was playing with many different bands as a keyboardist and background singer, from blues/rock and pop to progressive and metal bands. In 1991, as a keyboardist with the rock band Spirits, I was elected the winner of the CCAA Festival; by 1995 I assumed the position of lead singer at that band.
In 1999 I joined the Classic Rock Tribute band Sargento Rock as a singer and keyboardist. I played songs from The Beatles and Rolling Stones to Rush, Journey, Queen and Van Halen, as well as my own music. As a session musician I played with Violeta de Outono, Alejandro Sanz, SkyScraper, Gravekeeper , and many others.
I graduated in Communications in 1997 and in 2003 I completed my B.A. in Classical Music at Sao Paulo State University (ECA - USP), which is the most respected classical music university in Latin America. There, most of my projects were on arranging, composing, and choir singing.
Another important part of my career is teaching. It began in 1991 at Harmony Music Center, the conservatory which I studied since I was 10 years old. I first taught keyboards and later piano (classic and popular), synthesizers, music theory, sight-reading and sight-singing. I kept teaching until 2005 at Harmony, as a private instructor, and in other institutions, including Conservatorium Brasil and Humboldt.
By 2005 I moved from Brazil to Los Angeles to study at Vocal Institute of Technology (VIT) at Musicians Institute (MI). There I focused my studies in rock, vocal timbre and effects. I also improved my abilities in combining different styles in my compositions and arrangements, including classical, Brazilian and American popular music.
In 2006, VIT elected me “Outstanding Student of The Yearâ€. The same year I started working as a teacher's assistant and singer for the “Guitar Heroes from the 80'sâ€; position that I kept until March 2007, when I graduated and joined the V.I.T. as a vocal teacher.
At MI I'm focusing my teaching on Vocal Technique, Arranging and assisting students in open counseling sessions.
I just released a new album called “Under Hollywood's Lightsâ€, recorded at Entourage and Anacardium Studios. In this album, I'm proposing a new look at acoustic rock inspired by classical and Brazilian music blended with jazz and blues; it has been released by my own record label StyleLab.
You can buy it at CD Baby:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/leoloebenberg
