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Victor Calderone

Growing up in Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst neighborhood, Victor Calderone was initiated into New York City nightlife by his older brother Cesar, who was very active in the club music industry. At the age of 15, Calderone began trying his hand at turntables and other DJ equipment. A decade later, in 1991, music mogul Seymour Stein signed both Calderone and his partner Gene LaFosse to a contract with Sire Records (the two collaborated briefly with a techno group called Program 2). Shortly after the release of their first album, the group disbanded and Calderone decided to voluntarily exile himself from the music industry.

During his time away from the club music industry, Calderone worked in the restaurant business, but was eventually encouraged to work on new projects, including his first solo record, “Give It Up.” Calderone then returned to number one for two weeks in 2001 with “Are You Satisfied?” featuring vocals by Deborah Cooper.

Inspired by New York’s then-burgeoning club scene, Calderone performed at many major events in the city. Calderone found work at both the Roxy in New York and the Liquid in Miami Beach. In 1998 he meets and begins a lasting relationship with Madonna. Due to his peculiar vision and innovative style, Calderone obtained the commission for the remix of “Frozen,” the first single released on the album Ray of Light. Since 1998 he has remixed eleven other singles for Madonna: Ray of Light, Sky Fits Heaven, Skin, Beautiful Stranger, American Pie, Music, Don’t Tell Me, What it Feels like for a Girl, Die Another Day, and Hollywood.

Following Madonna’s recommendation, Sting chose Calderone to remix her song “Desert Rose,” the second single from his 1999 album Brand New Day. The British singer not only hired Calderone to remix the single, something he had never done before during his career, but also went back into the studio with him to re-record the vocals to fit the new dance-oriented rhythms of the remixed song. The song remained on Billboard’s dance chart for an impressive 80 weeks, including nine consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart.

In addition to collaborations with Madonna and Sting, his achievements as a remixer include work for artists such as Gloria Estefan, Beyoncé Knowles, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Sarah Brightman, and many others.

He also collaborated with several house music producers, including Mac Quayle and especially Peter Rauhofer, the first Grammy Award winner in the Dance Music category. Their joint efforts, better known as The Collaboration, resulted in a popular set of multiple CDs and several hit singles.

After a long string of successful albums and singles, Calderone created his Evolve brand in 2005 as a way to bring together his many works around the world, including Montreal, Tel Aviv, Bulgaria and a monthly collaboration with New York’s Pacha. With the Evolve brand now taking off globally, clubgoers quickly began to associate the word with dynamic and ambitious sets that break musical boundaries and conventions of what a DJ set “should” be.

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