Mehmari’s activities as pianist, composer, and arranger are highly regarded in both popular and classical music. As his compositions have been performed by leading orchestras such as Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo and chamber ensembles such as the São Paulo String Quartet, his career in Brazilian popular music and jazz has attained wide attention with performances in all of Brazil’s major festivals and abroad at Umbria Jazz in Italy and Juan Les-Pins in France.

He began studying music at age five and by the time he was ten had started composing and taught himself improvisation. While studying at São Paulo State University, he won the University’s competition for original Brazilian popular music and, two years later, was given the same honor in classical music. The 1998 Prêmio VISA de MPB award included the recording of an album which became the first of his forty releases. In 2006, he won the Carlos Gomes award for classical music and was appointed resident composer for the São Paulo State Wind Band. He continues to receive frequent commissions from Brazil’s leading orchestra – Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo – and was commissioned to write music for both the 2007 Pan American Games and 2016 Olympic Games held in Rio de Janeiro. In 2017, South America’s leading literary festival, the International Literary Festival of Paraty, was attended by 25,000 people and commissioned Mehmari to compose and perform a new work in tribute to author Lima Barreto.

A prolific musician, in the past twelve months alone Mehmari has released five albums including a new recording of his works for strings and a solo piano recording of the works of composer Noel Rosa.