MATO means 'forrest' in portuguese (of course, he is one of these 'tree huggers') and is the stage name of my husband Wolfgang Masarié
 




Wolfgang was born in 1948 in post world-war Vienna.
He grew up as a single child of working class parents, who raised him with love but very limited means.

His mother died from a medical error when he was 14, and from then on was more or less on his own, because his father worked in a metal factory and had neither time nor energy to take part in his upbringing.

Mato became involved in the socialist youth movement and after finishing high school (grammar school), got the chance to work as a journalist for the socialist newspaper 'Arbeiterzeitung' and later as a supervisor in the human resources department of the Viennese town council.

He abandoned this promising career to study classical guitar in the Viennese Music University.

He left Vienna after the successful completion of his studies to work as a music teacher for the 'Landesmusikschulwerk' (a paramount organization of all public music schools) in Upper Austria. Car traffic increased significantly in this time and the resulting degradation of the quality of life made this move an appealing choice.

Mato kept his job as a music teacher through all the years till today. The position didn’t offer great career opportunities (though he occasionally became deputy head teacher) but provided a steady and decent income and a safety net while leaving enough time to follow individual ambitions.


In the 80s he started designing and constructing his own music electronic equipment. In 1982 he designed a music computer and wrote a complete operating system for it in 6502 Assembler.
At this time he worked as a contributing journalist for several German music magazines and was for two years on the board of an association of engineers and musicians called: 'Arbeitskreis Musikelektronik'.

In the late 80s he got interested in environmental politics, he founded an environmental pressure group and helped in organizing various environmental initiatives. He became editor of a renowned environmental magazine with the title 'Umweltschutznachrichten'.

The music activities in this time were the Bossa Nova ensemble 'Aqua Corrente' (two guitar players and two percussionists) and a guitar duo which played exclusively music of J. S. Bach.

The computer activities focused on MSX (Yamaha CX-5 music computer) where he sold an upgrade of the sound module in considerable numbers. Later on he wrote software for Atari ST which was distributed in Germany.

After the breakup of his first marriage at the start of the 90s he stopped all environmental and computer related activities and started performing with various Jazz ensembles as a bass player. He also worked with commercial dance bands where he played guitar, bass and keyboards.


Later on he founded his own band 'Soulwave', which performed mainly Soul music of the 70s. The Lead Vocalist was Jutta Schmidt alias Phoebe Hall.

He restarted his computer activities in the late 90s and became involved in the Apple Macintosh internet community. As administrator of several Hotline servers he made friends all over the world, with many of whom he is still in contact today.

After a severe cancer sickness (Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma) in 2000 which was treated and most probably cured by chemo therapy he stopped 'live performances' and focused on composing and recording music in his home studio.

His tunes are inspired by Afro American Music and World Music, but they defy fashions or trends and have no commercial objective.
They are not background music or easy listening and are only accessible if one listens carefully and repeatedly and tries to understand the underlying idea and the emotional message.

A musical cooperation for some years with Jeanne Carroll had a big influence.

After Mato's part time retirement in 2003, we live now with our four cats in a nice house in a rather remote location.







Mato is hoping for some more years to develop his music and share his life experience and insight with his friends and anybody who is willing to listen....

Compositions by Wolfgang Masarié








Copyright by Wolfgang Masarié - Compositions by Wolfgang Masarié

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