ABOUT ME
Mari Rosa is an award-winning singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary artist working across music, visual art, and fiction. She makes art for people who find kinship in questions that don't resolve neatly, in beauty that doesn't apologize, and in humor where you’d least expect it.
Mari Rosa makes piano-driven pop for people who want both the ache and the beauty—songs that trust you to sit with complicated feelings without explaining them away. With impressionistic cascades of chords, strong narratives, and a big-hearted sensibility, her work has drawn comparisons to soft rebels like Kate Bush, Björk, and Tori Amos.
When she wrote her first formal song at age 8, Mari Rosa never imagined she'd grow up to perform with Cuban music legend Cachao. She wasn't really even supposed to be alive. A childhood illness nearly ended her life, and music became the quiet, beautiful antidote to those tough, introspective years.
The multilingual daughter of an Italian Argentine father and an American mother, Mari Rosa grew up in Boston, her home filled with the cooing sounds of Spanish, Italian, and Neapolitan, and the warm smells of empanadas and tomato sauces cooked all day long.
She earned a double degree in Music and Modern Languages in New York, studying with double Grammy nominee Thomas Young, MET Opera & NYC session singer Hilda Harris (Luther Vandross, Nina Simone, Quincy Jones, Blondie), and Argentine poet laureate María Negroni. She studied classical piano with Martin Goldray (Philip Glass), jazz piano with Don Friedman (Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Eric Dolphy), jazz improvisation and piano with legendary pedagogue Charlie Banacos, and bel canto technique with Berklee professor emeritus Charlie Sorrento.
IN HER OWN WORDS
01 Singer Songwriter
“I vividly remember the first time I heard a really funky song on PBS. I was three years old and the hairs on my chubby little arms stood up in delight.
I love the multidimensional potential of songs. Lyrics and layers, vocal tone and texture, melody and harmony, rhythm and production — they offer a way for us to feel witnessed while witnessing, understood while discovering.
How beautiful a good song can be. How fundamentally affirming and entertaining.
My training and early work have me rooted in jazz and Latin jazz sung in English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese but Bicycle Wheel, Anima, and my recent work are all about indie pop. My music has been called sensual, quirky, and literate. All of that is true, but I am fundamentally fascinated by life, its complexity and simultaneity.
My songs dive heart-first into the small moments that define, divine, and hold us together — always with sincerity, and very often with a sense of humor.”
- Mari Rosa
02 Visual Artist
Watercolor florals, ephemeral redheads, hand-drawn animation
“I began painting flowers during lockdown in France. Each portrait is like a meticulous and luminous meditation made to reward the kind of attention we rarely give ourselves permission to inhabit.
In 2024, I created my Redhead series, an exploration of negative space, & the wild unconventional beauty of my fellow genetic freaks. (I love you. No shade. Yes, sunblock.)
I also created a hand-drawn animation. My 6,500-frame music video “Conspiracy Theory” screened internationally and was an Official Selection at multiple festivals including the Munich Music Video Awards (2022), International Music Video Awards (2021), International Sound Future Awards (2022) and Rome Music Video Awards (2022).
03 Writer
“I’ve been writing and reading poetry since I was a kid. It is as expressive and unique as a voice. It can be richly hued like oil paint, or as airy as gauze. Like all stories, it deepens our relationship with being alive — making us feel seen, and even held, if only briefly.
In addition to poetry, I’m currently writing my first novel: a mythic fabulist adventure about a young NYC playwright who takes a job as a psychic to pay the bills… and accidentally awakens a dangerous family secret.
Since these works are as yet unreleased, so for now, stay tuned. More to come.
Have a project in mind?
Mari is available for select performances, music and topline writing, artistic direction, visual commissions, and multidisciplinary creative collaborations.
Get in touch and tell her what you’re making.
WORK WITH ME
Full Bio continued…
Mari Rosa has performed on stages across the United States and Europe at The Bitter End, the 92nd Street Y, Club Passim (Cambridge, MA), Ronnie Scott's (London), Zinc Bar, Rockwood Music Hall, and many more. She has opened for Will Daly and Federico Aubele. Her awards for singing and writing cross languages and genres (Latin Jazz, Jazz, Indie pop, and holiday music) with atypical fluency. In 2022, she hand-drew a 6,500 frame animated music video for her original song, “Conspiracy Theory.” The song tells the story of a heart-poundingly awkward blind date between two adorable aliens, and earned official selections at Munich Music Video Awards, Rome Music Video Awards, and International Sound Future Awards.
Mari Rosa has recorded/performed with Latin Grammy winner Fernando Otero, Kermit Driscoll (Bill Frisell), 7x Emmy winning composer José Cancela, Kaitlin McGaw of the Grammy winning Alphabet Rockers and many others. Her albums include Honeyspot (2012), Bicycle Wheel (2019, mastered by Grammy winner Ducky Carlisle), Música Aquí (2020, Far Out Recordings, as Limoncello), Pink Sand (2020), and the forthcoming Anima (2026, Clap Erasers Records).
In addition to being a musician, Mari Rosa began working as a visual artist in 2018 creating highly detailed floral art. Designed to make you feel you are seeing petals through warm summer light, the series aims to invite a state of presence, and a reverence for the nature. In 2024, she began her Redhead series, an exploration of negative space and the wild, polarizing beauty of redheads. Her work has sold to private buyers worldwide.
A lifelong poet and writer, Mari is currently working on her first novel—a mythic fabulist adventure about a struggling NYC playwright who takes a job as a psychic, only to come face to face with family legacy, power, and the devastating threat of long buried secrets.
Working across music, visual art, and fiction, Mari Rosa makes art for people who find kinship in questions that don't resolve neatly, in beauty that doesn't apologize, and in humor where you’d least expect it.
In conversation:Trusting the Journey: Mari Rosa’s Artistic Evolution — La Vie Creative
