Kavisha Mazzella


Kavisha Mazzella AM is an Australian composer, singer-songwriter, folklorist, activist and choirleader whose style has mediterranean, gypsie and Celtic influences. She won an ARIA Award for Best World Music Album for Fisherman's Daughter produced by Mick Thomas in 1998. Mazzella has released several studio albums independently. She is also a member of an Italian folk band which play Italian folk music and independently released one studio album, Suitcase Serenata, in 2010.

Early life

Mazzella was born in 1959 in London to an Italian father and an Anglo-Burmese mother. In the 1960s the family moved to Perth, Western Australia.
In 1981 through researching her Italian heritage Mazzella formed with brother Giri Antonio Mazzella and Sanjiva Gianni Margio playing Italian folk from the 14th century onwards. They released a cassette "Flowers in the Desert" in 1981.
In 1987 after returning from busking in Europe Mazzella formed the band Rich'N' Famous with Lee Buddle, Gary Burke, Reuben Kooperman, Peter Grayling including John Reed. Rich 'N' Famous played shows mainly in Fremantle and various festivals such as Woodford, Port Fairy and Brunswick Music festival.
In 1989 Mazzella founded the Fremantle Italian women's choir "Joys of the women" with Italian immigrant women. This was documented by Franco Di Chiera's film "The Joys of The Women", which received a national television cinema release in 1993.
In 1996 Mazzella formed the Melbourne Italian Women's choir "la Voce Della Luna" ; in 2000 she was awarded the Italian Government award Italia Nel Mondo for her work in promoting Italian Culture in Australia. She directed la Voce Della Luna until 2013. In 2004 the Victorian Government commissioned Kavisha to write "Tunc Justus" a choral work celebrating Raffaello Carboni, the famous Italian translator and assistant to Peter Lalor in the Victorian Goldfields and the Italian connection in the Eureka Stockade. In 2007 Mazzella was commissioned by the Victorian Women's Trust to write the women's Anthem "Love and Justice" to celebrate one hundred years of women's suffrage in Victoria. In 2008 she won the Multicultural Commissions Award for Excellence for her work in community music. In 2011 she formed the Moon's A Balloon Mental Health Choir in Melbourne.
Kavisha has performed at festivals in Canada, Ireland, USA, Hungary, Slovenia, New Caledonia, Singapore, China and Malaysia.
Mazzella collaborated with Angela Chaplin, the theatre director in Deckchair Theatre Company in Fremantle for many years writing and composing music for shows. In 2002 Mazzella together with co-writers Katherine Thomson and Angela Chaplin won a Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work for Mavis Goes to Timor.

Advocacy

Kavisha has also worked with indigenous communities in out back Australia teaching songwriting workshops and has also been an advocate for refugees and mental health in many theatre projects.Her concerts and theatre projects promote multicultural harmony and coming together of cultures to share common humanity.
In 2011 Kavisha was awarded an Order of Australia for her services to singing songwriting and reflecting the experiences of refugees, indigenous and multicultural communities through performance.

Discography