The Boston HarpBeat Duo is the collaborative creation of percussionist Fabio Pirozzolo and harpist Shelley Otis. The Peruvian cajon, the Southern Italian tamburello, and the Middle-Eastern darbuka compliment the soft sounds of the lever harp in an unusual and captivating way. The two performers merge elements of pop covers and world music into a dynamic and entertaining musical act.
Harpist Shelley Otis plays for more than 150 weddings and private events every year, and also performs publicly as a soloist and as part of several ensembles. Highlights include the South Shore Folk Music club in Kingston, MA, the Boston Recorder Society concert series, private events in France, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, and opening for Maddy Prior at the Music Haven with Ulster Landing. As a composer and arranger for the harp, she draws on multiple musical traditions, and has traveled in Mexico, Chile, and Ecuador, interviewing harpists from the arpa llanera tradition. She maintains a 5-star rating on several event planning sites and is a multi-year winner of both Wedding Wire’s Couple’s choice award, and the Knot’s Best of Weddings Award, and recently was accepted into the Knot’s Wedding Hall of Fame. Her music is available on most streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora.
Fabio Pirozzolo is an Italian drummer, multi-percussionist and singer currently based in Boston, Massachusetts. Originally from Terracina, Italy, he started his career as a folk percussionist, playing Italian frame drums tamburello and tammorra, in one of the most famous folk groups in his area. This experience gave him the opportunity to travel throughout Europe, playing concerts and giving lectures on regional Italian frame drum techniques. A summa cum laude graduate from Berklee College of Music, he performs in virtually any genre of music from jazz to world music to rock. He’s the co-founder of the world music ensemble Grand Fatilla and Italian folk music ensemble Newpoli where he plays percussion and sings. Highly in demand both as a drummer and as percussionist, he’s currently the drummer for The Guruganesha Band, Vanessa Trien and The Jumping Monkeys and the Union United Methodist Church Band; and the percussionist for Revma Greek Ensemble, Musaner, Cesni Trio, Saawari, and Arev Armenian Folk ensemble. His experiences have led him to drum for Herb Reed’s Platters, Mario Frangoulis, George Perris, Jon Butcher and Petroloukas Halkias among other world class performers. He also collaborates with Berklee College world-class teachers Skip Hadden and Casey Scheuerell. Fabio has taught master classes at Berklee, Harvard and Tufts University and has worked at Emerson College and Boston Conservatory as an accompanist for dance classes. He’s the author of the drum transcriptions for Skip Hadden’s drum book "Profiles in Jazz Drumming" and "Broken Eight’s Time Feel". His transcriptions are also featured on the Italian drum magazine "Batteria e Percussioni", "Batteria", "Percussionista" and on Polish drum magazine "Top Drummer".
