The unique intersection of music & tech.
Born and raised in a family of musicians, Daniel Dalarossa, Founder & CEO of ChoroMusic and former board member of BayBrazil, give us a candid view on transitioning from leading a successful IT business to building a company dedicated to share Brazilian instrumental music with the world.
He launched ChoroMusic in 2006 and has since made the works of masters such as Pixinguinha and Jacob do Bandolim available worldwide through play-along CDs.
In our conversation, Daniel talks about his latest work, his inspiration, the influence of his professor on his life, and also shares an advice to founders looking to expand their companies.
BayBrazil: From being a founder and CEO of a global company, you launched Choro Music in 2006 to share Brazilian instrumental music with the world. How was that transition from tech to music?
Daniel: The sense of realization does not change, no matter the industry, when you see your products and solutions transforming people’s lives but, I have to confess that I had to
completely change my mentality when designing and launching a new product. The music industry works at a much slower pace when compared with the IT industry.
BayBrazil: Your latest work features Brazilian flutist Pattápio Silva. Tell us about his music and the motivation to launch his work.
Daniel: Pattápio Silva was a genius of the flute, who was born very poor in the countryside of the state of RJ, and had a meteoric career, becoming famous in Brazil at age 25 and suddenly passing away while on tour in Florianopolis at 27 years of age.
He is considered a classical composer and is known to be the first flutist to record in Brazil (1902), when the phonographic industry was just starting there.
We decided to produce a play-along songbook with his main works, since, surprising as it might sound, nobody had ever done this in Brazil. Now, anyone in the world can play his compositions by using our
songbook, which comes with the scores and backing tracks performed in the guitar by an expert in the instrument, Italo Peron.
Amateurs and professional musicians can have a lot of fun playing his music, but the book is especially important for students in their learning process.
BayBrazil: What are the other artists highlighted in Choro Music?
Daniel: We were the first to produce and sell to the entire world play-along songbooks of Pixinguinha, Jacob do Bandolim, Waldir Azevedo, Altamiro Carrilho and many others. We have around 30 titles available at www.ChoroMusic.com (physical books) and www.ChoroPlaybacks.com (digital books).
All the songbooks features Brazilian instrumental music, and are focused on Choro, a traditional genre of music in Brazil, similar to Ragtime in US.
BayBrazil: You studied music with one of the greatest world’s flute masters, João Dias Carrasqueira. How he’s influenced your music and ultimately, your life?
Daniel: Prof. Carrasqueira had an immense impact in my formation as person, musician and entrepreneur. I can honestly say that he taught me to dream.
I applied his teachings with amazing results when I founded my first company, Cyclades, with my business partner John Lima, and I still use the teachings today.
Here are some milestones in my life that I can clearly correlate to Prof. Carrasqueiras teachings and were deeply influenced by him: my decision to abandon my comfortable and successful job as SW Engineer to open my company in IT, a critical moment I and John lived at Cyclades when we were facing technical challenges with our first product (I came close to totally give up on the company because of the SW and HW bugs), the decision to come to Silicon Valley, the decision to open a branch in Japan.
I could write many pages giving more details on each of those moments, but, in summary, they are all connected to the teachings and values I acquired and developed having Prof. Carrasqueira as a tutor.
BayBrazil: We’ve been extensively presenting and discussing the entrepreneurial evolution in Brazil and its new wave of startups.
If you were to advice a founder, what is the most important thing to keep in mind in the process of growing his/her company and competing globally?
Daniel: We understand how important is to get your products and solutions right, and all that related to this specific aspect. But, nothing compares to your ability to motivate yourself and your team and to your ability to give permission to yourself to pursue your dreams. Note that I said “ability”, implying those are attributes you can develop in the course of your life, like I developed and improved having Prof. Carrasqueira and others as mentors.
BayBrazil: BayBrazil has had a great friend in you since our early days. We are very grateful for all your contribution. And of course, for bringing chorinho to our events!
Daniel: It was so nice to have participated in the early days of BayBrazil as a board member and it is a joy to see now what BayBrazil has become. It is always a pleasure to play choro to live audiences.
Watch Daniel’s opening flute solo at BayBrazil annual conference 2019: https://youtu.be/XlOyQ0gLmjg
