Maria Mazzotta's unique versatility is what makes her one of the most important voices of the music scene in the Apulia region of Italy and, more generally, of world music towards which she has an extremely respectful approach, backed by meticulous research into vocal characteristics of the area which highly differentiate the various cultures found within it.

 

She moves in a natural, seamless way from the sounds of Southern Italy to the inflections of balkan music, and captivates the audience with her sincere interpretation as she carries them along while immersing them into the cultures of the songs interpreted.

She started studying the piano very young (for 7 years, then the harp (for 3 years) at the “Tito Schipa” Conservatory in Lecce, and in 1998 had her first encounter with the songs of the Salento tradition through listening to the original sources and by actively participating in the revisitation and revival of these songs.

From 2000 to 2015, she was part of Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino; a band she recorded 6 albums with, participating in some of the most important international world music festivals. She attended several workshops and master-classes to deepen her awareness of various vocal techniques; with Sayeeduddin Dagar, one of the best known Indian Dhrupad singers, and with Bobby McFerrin, who chose her to do a duet with at the 2008 edition of “Bari in Jazz”.

 

She started looking towards the east and got passionate about balkan music and, at just age 21, began her musical research through various Eastern musicians of different nationalities (Greeks, Albanians, people from Macedonia and Croatia, Romanians, and Bulgarians and Gypsies whom she met during her numerous concerts). From here, the partnership with the albanian cellist Redi Hasa first started up, which was made complete by the merging of a musical-cultural symbiosis from which the “Hasa-Mazzotta” duo came about.

 

In 2006, she was part of the Notte della Taranta Orchestra directed by M° Ambrogio Sparagna. From 2011 to 2014, she was the soloist voice of the same festival under the direction of M° Ludovico Einaudi, M° Goran Bregovic, and M° Giovanni Sollima. Since 2013, she has been working as a singer with the dance company of Miguel Angel Berna, performing the shows “Mediterraneo”, “La jota e la taranta”, “Cardia” and “Dos Tierras” in various theaters around the world, including the Olympic Theater in Rome, the Petruzzelli Theater in Bari, the Canal Theater in Madrid, and at the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv. In 2015, she participated as a singer in the new film by Carlos Saura “La jota”. 

Maria Mazzotta can boast numerous collaborations with national and international artists, including: Bobby McFerrin, Ibrahim Maalouf, Rita Marcotulli, Ballake Sissoko, Piers Faccini, Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara, Mannarino, Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio, Hysni (Niko) Zela and Fanfara Tirana, Eva Quartet, Klapa Otok, Bojken Lako, Raiz, Roy Paci, Roberto Ottaviano, Raffaele Casarano, Bijan Chemirani, and Mario Arcari.