French-italian violonist MARIO FORTE was born in 1983. He began the violin at the age of five and studied classical violin in the Nîmes, Perpignan and Montpellier conservatories. It is the encounter with Didier Lockwood that led him to jazz violin, which he encouraged him to pursue.
Later he graduated from the Paris Conservatory (CNSM) where he studied jazz and improvised music in the classes of Riccardo DEL FRA, Glenn FERRIS, Pierre De BETHMANN, François THEBERGE, Dré PALLMERTS and Hervé SELLIN.
In 2008, he was selected to represent the France at the Jazz International Association of School which took place in Riga (Latvia).
In 2010, Mario Forte composed and released his first album « Walkin’ Tribute » where he conducted his own symphonic orchestra and with famous trombone player Glenn Ferris as a guest. One of the pieces « Time Signature » was awarded 1st Prize at the International AES Competition in Munich.
During the last ten years, he has been regularly invited to play in various festivals, at the first parts of EARTH, WIND & FIRE, E.S.T trio concerts and performed with his own group.
Mario Forte played with many great musicians such as Soriba KOUYATE, William SHELLER, Mâalem ABDELLAH LE GOURD (Dar Gnawa), Glenn FERRIS, Jean-Loup LONGNON, Claude BARTHELEMY, Marc-michel Le BEVILLON, Jasser HAJ YOUSSEF, Bernard LUBAT, Maâlem Arafa CHAARA (...).
Recently he has developed projects with Gnawas and arabo- andaluzes musics and was invited in 2011 on the national Maroccan channel TV 2M World as a guest of the popular show « Chada Alhan » to perform with the reknowned traditional arabic world conductor Mohamed-Amine El Akrami.
In addition to his career as an interpreter, he has composed the film music of the 3 french movies «Dimanche» and “Colin Maillard” by Aurore CLAVERIE and «Loin de mes idées» by Clarence de MAGNEVAL, for the Alter Media Production.
In 2011 Mario Forte has been named Professor in the departments of jazz and ensemble classes in Switzerland at the High Music School of Lausanne (Musikhochschule).
