Marcello Maio is an Australian jazz pianist and composer. A student at Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Sydney Conservatorium of Music

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...

 from 2003, Maio was the accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

 player on the television variety show In Siberia Tonight

In Siberia Tonight

In Siberia Tonight was an Australian comedy talk show which aired on SBS from 2005 to 2006. The program was hosted by comedian Steve Abbott and was themed around his Russian heritage. The program commonly featured The Kransky Sisters, Indira Naidoo, Steves' mum Evelyn Abbott and Marcello Maio.-...

(2005–2006), during which he communicated with the host through his instrument. He is keyboardist in the jazz band SEXION, a member of gypsy-jazz fusion band, Monsieur Camembert

Monsieur Camembert

Monsieur Camembert is a five-piece Gypsy fusion band formed in Sydney, Australia in 1999. They have won three ARIA Music Awards for Best World Music Album in 2002 for Live on Stage , in 2003 for Absynthe and in 2005 for Monsieur Camembert...

, and experimental tango

Tango music

Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...

 band, The Tango Saloon

The Tango Saloon

The Tango Saloon is an experimental tango band from Sydney, Australia. Their self-titled debut, a "tango-flavored album with a twist of spaghetti western", was released in 2006 by Ipecac Recordings, the American record label run by Mike Patton and Greg Werckman...

. He has won the National Accordion Championships for three years (2001–2003) in both pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

/jazz and solo performance sections.

Early years

Marcello Maio attended St Mary's Cathedral College

St Mary's Cathedral College, Sydney

St Mary's Cathedral College is a private, Catholic, secondary day school for boys, located in the Central Business District of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is owned by the Archbishop of Sydney and operates as a systemic school....

 and became proficient in piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 and piano accordion

Piano accordion

A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more similar to that of an organ than a piano, as they are both wind instruments, but the term "piano accordion"—coined by Guido Deiro in 1910—has remained the popular...

 before becoming a student at Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Sydney Conservatorium of Music

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...

 studying jazz from 2003.