Ivo, a native Carioca, grew up in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. From early childhood on, he was drawn to the mystical and powerful drum sounds of the "morros" (slums) of Rio de Janeiro. It was Ivo’s Mom who took him, while she was pregnant, to Rio's famous samba schools. His earliest memories consist of batucadas (drum ensembles) and street "blocos de sujo" (street percussion bands).

1950 Ivo sees everybody very sad when Brazil was in mourning for having lost the soccer world cup in its own country against Uruguay (2:1). The Maracanaço, but the samba did not stop (“levanta sacode a poeira da a volta por cima”, song: Volta por cima). The man Ivo most admired at that time was Natal da Portela, the one armed man (o homem de um braço só), very active and respected. At the Old Portelinha, the rehearsals, Ivo had his attention on the band and passistas meanwhile his mom was dancing.

On the way home from school, sitting in the back of the busses, Ivo and his classmates every day used to bang “batucando” with their hands on the back seats and walls, turning them into percussion instruments meanwhile singing current samba themes from their favorite sambas schools and blocos.

Not much to the liking of the bus drivers, it was to them he dedicated the lyrics of this popular street song. “Nesse carro não viajo mais, jogaram um par de xifres no banco de tras. O par de xifres estava muito quente jogaram o par de xifres no banco da frente. O trocador deu logo a pista, o par de xifres não é meu, é do motorista.” (música engraçada e de gosação).

With daily exercises and weekly rehearsals at the samba school, it didn't take long to find him playing the various instruments and dancing samba steps (passista) among some blocos and Rio's leading samba schools, which are the large social clubs that make up Rio's carnival parades.

Ivo moved to NYC in 1980 where he started performing in New York’s Halloween Parade with different samba groups and joined to Empire Loisada Samba School. He also played for Manoel Monteiro’s Batucada Samba Band.

In 1988 founded, Ivo founded the samba bands Casa Grande e Senzala and Quilombo dos Palmares.

It was in 1990 when he teamed up with Amy Duncan to bring Manhattan Samba to life. Being the mestre of Manhattan Samba (band leader), he conducts the band.

Manhattan Samba marked its debut in the NYC’s Brazilian Independence Day Festival and Halloween Parade and has been performing annually in both events ever since!

On a tight weekly Saturday late-night schedule, from 1990 to 2005, he led the band to a long-running hit show at NYC’s prestigious latin music club SOB’S.

In order to form a strong bateria (Samba School) for the weekly events, Ivo started teaching drums to Manhattan Samba members. Since then he taught and continues teaching hundreds of drummers. He is very passionate about passing along the samba tradition and music style to everybody interested. Proudly, he watches local samba groups evolving from his teaching.
In the meantime, he conducted Manhattan Samba at hundreds of different venues.

Since 2006 up to present, he leads Manhattan Samba at bi-weekly shows at the Brazilian Churrascaria (Steakhouse) Brasilia Grill in Newark, NJ.

In 2008, Manhattan Samba started its first intercultural music collaboration with Gogol Bordello performing at the Irving Plaza in NYC.