Kavisha Mazzella

Kavisha Mazzella AM (pronounced KAV-eesh-a Mutt-Sel-la) is the recording name of Australian multi-instrumental musician, activist and painter Paola Mazzella (born 1959). Mazzella is a singer-songwriter. She won an ARIA Award for Best World Music Album in 1998. Mazzella has released several studio albums independently. She is also a member of I Viaggiatori (The Travellers) an Italian folk band who play Italian folk music and independently released one studio album Suitcase Serenata in 2010.

Mazzella was born in London to an Italian father and an Anglo-Burmese mother. In the 1960s the family moved to Perth, Western Australia. As a child, Mazzella learned from her mother to play piano and guitar and joined school choirs.

Mazzella graduated from Mercedes Girls College in 1976 and was accepted to study Arts at the University of Western Australia but soon dropped out She earned a Diploma of Fine Arts, majoring in Painting, at Claremont School of Art in Western Australia instead.

In 1981 through researching her Italian heritage Mazzella formed I Papaveri with brother Giri Antonio Mazzella and Sanjiva Gianni Margio playing Italian folk from the 14th century onwards. They released a cassette “Flowers in the Desert” in 1981.

In 1987 after returning from busking in Europe Mazzella formed the band Rich’N’ Famous with Lee Buddle, Gary Burke, Reuben Kooperman, Peter Grayling including John Reed. Rich ‘N’ Famous played shows mainly in Fremantle and various festivals such as Woodford, Port Fairy and Brunswick Music festival.

In 1989 Mazzella founded the Fremantle Italian women’s choir “Joys of the women” with Italian immigrant women. This was documented by Franco Di Chiera’s film “The Joys of The Women”, which received a national television cinema release in 1993.

In 1996 Mazzella formed the Melbourne Italian Women’s choir “la Voce Della Luna” (The Voice of the Moon); in 2000 she was awarded the Italian Government award Italia Nel Mondo for her work in promoting Italian Culture in Australia. She directed la Voce Della Luna until 2013. In 2004 the Victorian Government commissioned Kavisha to write “Tunc Justus” a choral work celebrating Raffaello Carboni, the famous Italian translator and assistant to Peter Lalor in the Victorian Goldfields and the Italian connection in the Eureka Stockade. This was premiered at “Echoes of Freedom” festival in Ballarat celebrating 150 years of the Eureka Stockade. In 2007 Mazzella was commissioned by the Victorian Women’s Trust to write the women’s Anthem “Love and Justice” to celebrate one hundred years of women’s suffrage in Victoria. This premiered with 462 women singing the anthem at the BMW Edge in Federation Square. In 2008 she won the Multicultural Commissions Award for Excellence for her work in community music.

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