Meet Maurizio Fiore Salas | Musician. Performer, Composer.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maurizio Fiore Salas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maurizio, what are you inspired by?
Folkloric music inspires me because of its authenticity. It doesn’t ask for the permission or acceptance of audience, labels or market pressures. It is like a time capsule that holds the memories of all the people that have lived it and created it and performed it throughout time. It lives in and is created by communities of people that act as its protectors. And yet, it is also somehow magically completely open to interpretation by any individual that wants to experiment with its elements and make it unique to the time and place it is being performed, because that act of personal interpretation is an essential part of the folkloric process. Just like energy doesn’t start or end but only transforms, so to folkloric music and culture will always exist as long as people remember it, perform it, reinvent it and protect it.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
About 10 years ago I decided to pick up a Venezuelan cuatro and learn as much as I could about Venezuelan folkloric music. It was challenging because my family did not have this music present in our household and nobody in my immediate circle of family/friends was involved in any of these cultures and traditions that I wanted to explore, so I was left to my own devices. Fortunately this was the 21st century and I had the vast landscape of Youtube and Google to help me piece together a map that I found out little by little was more intricate and complex than I ever could have expected it to be.

My passion for learning and exploring Venezuelan folkloric music eventually led me to other countries and traditions in Latin America, as I found more and more similarities in different kinds of music but also learned to appreciate all of the subtle differences between each of them. This growing passion nurtured my knowledge of jazz composition and improvisation that I had been studying for years before, and so it became my artistic vision to find a way in which I could combine the folkloric music I fell in love with and the jazz ensembles that I was studying for my composition classes. Following in the footsteps of many musicians in all of the Americas, I began experimenting with adapting and reinterpreting different forms of folkloric music using modern jazz harmony and creating spaces for improvisation that expanded on traditional practices.

Nowadays, that artistic vision has transformed into a much more intimate search where I seek to use this experience of looking at Venezuelan folkloric music through the lens of modern harmony and composition and combine it with my love for songwriting and lyrics. I decided to move away from seeking large groups of musicians and try to create something using only the tools at my disposal: my voice, my cuatro and my guitar. This kind of performance is very new to me, and I am still not sure how long it will be my focus, but I think everything in art is about exploration and discovery.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Only visit Boston April through December. Irish pubs and Brazilian restaurants are my go-tos.
Local breweries are always fun spots.
Especially in the summer but pretty much anytime there will be some kind of event going on somewhere, and the Greater Boston is a very diverse place with tons of different people and cultural groups, especially Latinos, so odds are if we just look up something to do we will find a place we’ve never been to before and try our luck.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My parents Mauricio Fiore and Lorena Salas, my younger brother Fabrizio. My teachers in Valencia, Venezuela: Franco Nasi, Melkis Obispo and Leonardo Lozano.
My teachers in Long Island, NY: Sidney Boquiren, Paul Moravec.
My teachers in Boston, MA: Eric Hofbauer, Eugene Friesen, Dave Fiuczynski, Dr. David Wallace, Daniel Ian Smith, Leo Blanco, Simon Shaheen, Greg Hopkins, Mimi Rabson.
My friends and colleagues in Acoustic Nomads: Noah Harrington, Ethan Setiawan, Sofia Chiarandini, Clara Rose.

Website: acousticnomadsband.com

Instagram: @mfioresalas

Youtube: @mfioresalas

Image Credits
(starting top left, going left to right) Joni Lohr – Louise Bichan Longy School of Music – Martin Cohen Louise Bichan – Joni Lohr Savannah Music Festival – Global Musician Workshop / Silkroad Organization