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Born
Vincenté Zarateigui in the Basque town of Pamplona,
Spain, Toto Zara came from a large, musical family of
four brothers and three sisters. Their father founded
and ran Spain's largest and most prestigious private
music school after completing his studies on classical
guitar in Germany with fellow student, Andre Segovia.
During
the 60's, the entire family performed throughout Europe
based out of Paris. Similar to the popular American
group, "The Osmond Brothers", Zaras performed
in large concert venues and nightclubs in Italy, France,
Germany, England and their home country of Spain. On
two occasions, their family was invited to perform at
the villa of Pablo Picasso and at the age of 8, Toto
was featured guitarist and flamingo-dancer during public
concerts by noted French composer Gilbert Becaud.
In
the early 70's, Zaras teamed up with two cousins from
Bilbao and released the pop-vocal hit "Eres Tu",
one of only 5 foreign language songs to reach the top
ten charts in history. As "Mocedaes" (musical
youth), the entire family came to America to tour in
support of their hit single. Performing in New York,
Toronto, Miami, Las Vegas and other concert venues,
Zaras began a run of bookings that continued for more
than 5 years. Their demand in the top show clubs of
North America highlighted the sibling's multi-instrumental
and vocal talent.
During
the mid 70's, Zaras was managed by 5th Dimension singer
/ songwriter Ron Thompson as they became a regular attraction
in Las Vegas showrooms and cabarets.
In
the early 1980's, Toto teamed up with Jazz / Latin performer
Airto Momeira and toured several times into South America
as featured guitarist / percussionist. Toto continued
to perform with his own version of Zaras in Las Vegas
as his oldest brother Marino relocated back to New York
where he went on to manage jazz great Flora Purim and
pop / vocal sensation Natalie Cole and super-group Starland
Vocal Band.
Toto
still performs in Las Vegas with his world music trio,
and owns one of Las Vegas's biggest and most prolific
recording studios, Midiworks. His band has been featured
at Steve Wynn's "Mirage" hotel both in the
show lounge as well as for Wynn's private parties, and
has been the featured performer at Andrea Bocelli's
private New Years Eve party at the Belagio for many
years, including the gala Millennium celebration.
Toto
was the featured "HP World Showcase Artist"
at the Boise River Festival in 2002 and continues to
return to the heavily Basque populated area of Boise,
performing to elated audiences of all ages!
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