When he left Phoenix to come to New York in 2001, Mario brought all those rock and roll dreams that unite youth near and far. His first year in New York, Mario found work with Philip Glass, the ingenious avant-garde minimalist composer of the 20th century. Mario recorded the score for the visually-stunning film, "Naqoyqatsi" as well as other Philip Glass scores including "The Hours" and "La Belle et la Bete".

One night at Looking Glass Studios, David Bowie was working with producer Tony Visconti on Heathen and Mario was asked to fill in for Sterling Campbell on drums on "Space Oddity" and "I Would Be Your Slave" as they rehearsed for the Tibetan Benefit show at Carnegie Hall. (To make this visual even better, Philip Glass was on piano, Adam Yauch (Beastie Boys) on guitar, Visconti on bass and Bowie at the mic.)

Meeting David and Tony brought Mario recording work directly with David Bowie and engineering and mix work with Tony Visconti. Among the projects Mario recorded with David is the Stealth soundtrack with producer BT and scores of unreleased demo work.

Mario mixed the upcoming Laurie Anderson Homeland (Nonesuch) release. Currently, Mario's in with Billy Joel's daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, mixing her latest release.

Mario recently worked with Anti-Flag at their Pittsburgh-based studio, mixed Alejandro Escovedo's contribution, "Too Little Too Late," for a Doug Sahm tribute CD, mixed Kagero's Japanese Gypsy Rock, remixed a David Bowie single,"Time Will Crawl" and engineered tracks with Linkin Park and Fall Out Boy. He also just mixed The Raveonettes for their Beauty Dies EP and their upcoming 2009 EP.

NY indie-darlings, Semi-Precious Weapons' debut release, We Love You (Razor and Tie), was produced, recorded and mixed by Mario.

Mario was in Copenhagen in May 2008 producing and mixing Halph's latest indie release, The World Is As You Are. Earlier, Mario was tracking punk rock legend Alejandro Escovedo's Real Animal and power punk favorites, Anti-Flag's Bright Lights of America, for producer, Tony Visconti, at Saint-Claire Studios for Backporch/Blue Note Records.

With Tony Visconti, Mario has recorded nearly all of Tony's music for the past six years including Angelique Kidjo's Djin Djin album (Razor and Tie), Neil and Tim Finn's Everyone Is Here (Nettwerk), David Bowie's Reality (Isolar/Columbia), Manic Street Preachers' Lifeblood (Epic), Hugh Cornwell's Beyond Elysian Fields, Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips' L'Avventura (Jet Set), Kashmir's No Balance Palace (SONY/Denmark) featuring Lou Reed and David Bowie, Kristeen Young's X and Breasticles (Sanctuary) and Morrissey's Ringleader of the Tormentors (Sanctuary).

Independently, Mario has produced, recorded and/or mixed Keith Richards, Laurie Anderson, David Torn, Ziggy Marley, Elysian Fields, The Blue Man Group, Rufus Wainwright, Cheyenne, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons) for the Matmos' The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast CD, indie rock band Halph's Ode To You (Pony) and The Cloud Room's Please Don't Almost Kill Me.

In 2008, Mario won his first Grammy Award for his work on Angelique Kidjo's spectacular, star-studded release, Djin Djin.