Meet Oscar Barcelli: Drummer, Composer and Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Oscar Barcelli and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Oscar, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor is to be honest with the music I do. Whenever I play for an artist or I write my own music, I always try to play what the music asks for. I don’t like to overplay on the songs just to make it sound harder. I believe that every musician should always do that. This is the only way to succeed in music. One other thing that is very important is to stay humble no matter what. In my experience, music has taken me in many places and I’ve always had the mentality to learn and help as much as I can. I’ve had the opportunity to study and share the stage with the greats and they always taught me that humility is the key to success.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
The music I do is a fusion between Peruvian music and Jazz. I try to combine the tradition of the Peruvian percussion with the concepts and orchestration of contemporary Jazz. This combination is very rich because it has a powerful rhythm and a very interesting harmony and melodic concepts. My project began in 2017 while I was attending Berklee College of Music. I started my project by doing arrangements of famous Jazz standards in Peruvian rhythms. In 2020 I decided that it was time to release my own music. My first EP came out in May of that year and it was a great success. The audience loved the fusion that I did and I received many comments that this was something that they never heard before. I was very happy with the results of the EP. It was not easy to do this fusion. The big challenge was to teach the Jazz musicians about Peruvian music. I had to teach them the basic rhythms of this style and to explain how I feel the music. It took a lot of time and to try with different musicians, but in the end I was able to find the right people that liked my project. The biggest lesson I learned so far was to always have my mind opened for any idea. I’ve been working with many different musicians and whenever I show them my ideas, they give me new ones that most of the time it makes my music sound very different and unique. I always like to have my musician’s ideas about the songs we record. I want to take my music into the whole world so the audience can experience what Peruvian music really is. One of my dreams is to represent Peru in a Jazz festival and to be able to teach the world what this music means.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If a friend comes to visit me the first thing will be to go for breakfast to Bea Bea’s. Is the best place to eat waffles and scrambled eggs. I would also take my friend to the Hollywood sign. For lunch I would go to Chio’s, the best Peruvian restaurant in Los Angeles. Another place I would like to go with my friend will be The Grove. Is a great place to walk and to have a great time. If more places were open, I would definitely go to Disney, Six Flags or Universal Studios

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate a shoutout to my biggest mentors Bob Gullotti and Kiko Freitas. My mentors are everything to me. They have taught everything I know in music and also guide me to apply my music knowledge in my life. Bob was my teacher at Berklee. I studied with him for two years and each lesson was incredible. He was a one of a kind teacher, because he taught me how to speak through music. Kiko has been my teacher for a year and I’ve never learned so much with someone. We studied mainly Brazilian music and he introduced a new way of playing drums to me. In all our classes we always talked about the importance of the tradition of the music and to know from where it comes. Besides them, I also want to thank the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation for believing in me. I had the honor to represent the foundation at the Latin GRAMMY in 2019. Since that day they have been named as their ambassador. Is a big responsibility and I am very proud to represent them.

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