Mário Franco

Who is Mário Franco?

Mário Franco is a dancer, doublebass player and a composer.

Mário started music lessons at the age of 4 in Centro de Estudos Gregorianos. Continued his studies in Academia de Amadores de Música, and where he started double bass lessons with Fernando Flores, and composition with Pedro Rocha as well as studying chamber music.

Studied bass guitar with António Ferro, Double Bass with David Gausden in Escola de Jazz do Hot Clube de Portugal; and took part in workshops with Rufus Reid, Niels Henning Orsted Pederson, Eberhard Weber.

In 1986-87, he attended double-bass courses given by Ludwig Streicher in Estoril and in 1988 won 1st prize in the Prémio Jovens Musicos; later became a member of Orquestra Sinfonica Juvenil where he worked on classical repertory with conductor Christopher Bochmann.

Since 1984, he plays jazz and improvised music in Portugal and abroad with musicians such as António Pinho Vargas, Mário Laginha, João Paulo Esteves de Silva, Bernardo Sassetti, Carlos Martins, Tomás Pimentel, José Peixoto, Jarmo Savolainen, Jim Leff, Ralph Peterson Jr., Paolo Fresu, Andy Sheppard, Peter Epstein, Ralph Towner.