Biography of Leandro d'Vintmus

​Leandro d'Vintmus is a musician who is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil.


Born in 1980, Leandro grew up surrounded by music. His father often played Brazilian folk music and his Aunt’s boyfriend, who was a DJ, would take him to parties and to watch him in action as a Radio Presenter.

Leandro’s cousin was a Samba and Pagode singer, and Banjo/Cavaquinho player who led a septet, while Leandro would attend all the rehearsals and most of the concerts.

Leandro has fond family memories of these rehearsals. In his teens he followed in his Aunt’s boyfriend’s footsteps and started DJing himself at parties and working as a DJ/Sound Engineer at Rodeo Fairs.

He moved to Spain in the early 90’s and in the early 2000’s, his DJing progressed into a live electronic set with sequencers. He worked with other musicians performing fusion and world music.

He became good friends with the Moroccan Gnawa Hadir Abderrazak, who as well as sharing his music, shared the history of his culture and traditions with Leandro.

His influences were the Chicago techno scene and minimal techno at this time and he began playing percussion instruments too.

A chance concert with Michael Nyman then led to Leandro becoming inspired by Indian classical music. He was particularly impressed with the Tabla player there, but didn’t at that time know who the musicians were. This made him decide he wanted to learn Indian music and though it was challenging, he finally found a tutor, Sazed Ul Alam, who was a mentor and father figure to him.

In 2006, Leandro went back to his roots and spent a week studying composition with Egberto Gismonti. This experience made Leandro fully appreciate his cultural heritage.

Leandro then moved to London and started playing music with various singers and songwriters.

In a really bizarre coincidence, Leandro’s love for learning Tabla led him to be reunited with his idol that had inspired him at the concert a decade before!

He had started studying with Pandit Sanju Sahai, and occasionally his father. After he reminisced about the mysterious Table player, all that time ago at the Michael Nyman concert, Leandro realized he was actually talking to Pandit, the very man himself!

In 2014, Leandro was taking acting lessons and producing videos. He made a short film, starring his classmates as actors. At his home he recorded and produced a short track in his studio, also playing trumpet, guitar and electric bass.

At this point he had spent a while improving his skills and he felt the time was right for him to share his experiences and feelings.

The video grew to a song which then turned into his first album, the Newborn EP which contains four tracks connected to the theme of evolving, growing and developing.

His interests include philosophy, praxeology (particularly how and why we interact as humans with each other and how we make decisions and choices)  and he likes to keep healthy and strong with various martial arts including judo. Karen Hill