Biography Marcelo Barbosa began playing electric guitar when he was 11. He studied with several teachers, mainly with Allan Marshall (the principles of harmony and improvisation). Since the very beginning Marcelo had been much dedicated to his line and the results of such attitude came very early. At 17 he already was a professional musician and a musical teacher in two the most important musical institutes in his home city Brasília. And it didn’t take much time for him to decide to establish his own one. Due to his passion and the fact that such educational institutions didn’t exist in Brasília at that time, he decided to focus on electric guitar. Besides organizing work and managing other teachers Barbosa established his own entire approach instead of copying or adapting any already existed one and he wrote all the didactic material. Years and thousands of graduates have proved effectiveness of his way. But at that time when everything was just beginning, in 1996, Marcelo was only 21!
Nowadays his institute called GTR is one of the most respected guitar schools in Latin America. GTR have already graduated over 4.000 students. More than 600 people are studying in three units of GTR at once. Besides electric guitar, there are the courses of vocals, acoustic guitar, production, musical business and many others. A lot of special events are frequently organized by GTR like festivals and workshops with masters like Sidney Carvalho, Kiko Loureiro, Edu Ardanuy among others. To its 10th anniversary GTR released a special 14 tracks CD recorded by some of the most prominent teachers.
Many specialists and music-lovers from other parts of Brazil and even from other countries pay their attention to Marcelo Barbosa’s teaching and playing skills. He is frequently invited to various guitar clinics, festivals, important exhibitions in Brazil like Expomusic and abroad like NAMM (USA).
At the same time Marcelo doesn’t stop studying himself, he attended classes and workshops of such masters like Greg Howe, Lula Galvão, Helio Delmiro, Toninho Horta, Guinga, Ian Guest among others. In 2002 he finished summer courses in the famous Berklee College of Music. As a result he was chosen with other 11 students to receive a scholarship for the college’s regular course (of 400 musicians from over the world!). Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to continue due to GTR and his other responsibilities.
Some time before Marcelo became a member of quite famous in Brasília pop rock band Zero10. They released an EP and a full-length album “Novo Dia” and they plays almost every week at different venues of the capital of Brazil. But actually the main musical passion of Marcelo is progressive rock and metal. Such bands like RUSH, PINK FLOYD, GENTLE GIANT and of course DREAM THEATER have permanently been among his favorites. No wonder that Barbosa's own band called KHALLICE plays prog metal!
The story of KHALLICE – one of the most important prog metal names in Brazil - has never been easy. It is not easy for any Brazilian band which is not from São Paolo. Also, Marcelo and other members have many other responsibilities in their careers. KHALLICE started in 1994 as a cover band, began to create its own stuff soon and released two important demos with a good feedback in specialized media. After various problems and holdbacks, Marcelo was able to put KHALLICE back on track, and the band recorded “The Journey” (2003). The first press of this independent album was sold out in less than six months. In the beginning of 2004 it was re-released by Hellion Records and in 2006 an important progressive rock label from North America Magna Carta managed a worldwide release of THE JOURNEY.
After some line-up changes, in the summer of 2007 KHALLICE started recording of the second full-length album. At the end of January 2008 the band won a contest announced by DREAM THEATER to support one of their shows during Brazilian tour. And in March 2008 KHALLICE played amazing gig with DT in Rio de Janeiro. It was not only another opportunity to gather new experience or to conquer some new audience but really making dreams come true! Obviously, it was a great goal for KHALLICE and Marcelo to win the recognition of the headliner of the genre. Specially for this show KHALLICE prepared a promotional EP Inside Your Head with 5 songs from the upcoming 2nd album. The new stuff made it clear that during these years Marcelo Barbosa and his KHALLICE team reached a new level of composing, playing and production.
At this highest point, the story of KHALLICE was stopped for some time. The release of the 2d album was postponed because Marcelo had become a member of another important brazilian act. In September 2007 Barbosa was invited to join the band ALMAH formed by some members of ANGRA and he went into a huge national tour with ALMAH. Since ANGRA had taken a break, ALMAH was becoming more and more important being the only legitimate successor of ANGRA. By spring 2008 the line-up of ALMAH was finally established. First, drummer Marcelo Moreira joined Edu Falaschi, Felipe Andreoli and Marcelo Barbosa. And then, another guitarist Paulo Schroeber joined ALMAH. Actually, Marcelo and Paulo nowadays represent one of the best guitar duos not only on national metal stage but all over the world.
At the end of April 2008 the recording of new ALMAH album “FRAGILE EQUALITY” started at Norcal studios (São Paolo) and finished in July 2008. Actually, all the band members brought their contribution into this record. And of course Marcelo composed a few parts. Among other highlights of the new record one can emphasize fantastic guitar work, a lot of brilliant, fast, aggressive and technically perfect solos of Marcelo and Paulo. No doubts, that nowadays ALMAH is one of the strongest heavy metal acts from Brazil and Marcelo Barbosa is an important part of it. At the moment, Marcelo together with his bandmates is working at the third studio album of ALMAH. The new CD is planned to be released in September 2011.
Among other participations of Barbosa we could mark V/A compilations “Guitarras do Cerrado” (2003) with two instrumental tracks by Marcelo and “Metal do Cerrado” with 2 Khallice and 1 Zero10 songs. Marcelo Barbosa took a place of Frank Solari in the important guitar trio TRITONE with Eduardo Ardanuy (Dr. Sin) and Sergio Buss.
Marcelo Barbosa shares his guitar experience writing articles for important guitar magazines in Brazil. Guitar Class, Cover Guitarra and Guitar Player are in his journalist’s background. Some time ago Marcelo wrote a book about technique to the “Toque de Mestre” series, published by HMP.
Marcelo Barbosa is endorsed by Tagima, Elixir strings, Nig pedals and Ibox. On Expomusic 2006 (a big musical exhibition in São Paolo) one of the most important guitar brands in Brazilian market TAGIMA released new MB-1, the guitar designed with Marcelo’s specifications, which belongs to the select team of "Signature Series" of the company.
“The pleasure and dedication of doing what I love always surpasses the obstacles, and that’s the fuel that pumps in me!” – tells Marcelo Barbosa and the most probably this fantastic career has only just begun!
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