Biography

Background

At the age of 10 the sound of a classical guitar took my breath away and happily catapulted into the universe of music, which was quite alien to me before that. I bought my first guitar by selling comics and books on the street that I had scavenged from around the house. It was the early 1970s, and my journey had begun.

Firstly came the rock bands, the stages of the town festivals, the boundless dreams of teenagers exalted by the myth of English and American rock stars. But a combination of personal growth, studies, and life’s randomness led me to leave the rock bands behind in ’79 and dedicate myself fully to the acoustic guitar and unexpectedly to the study of classical double bass, a study necessary to attend the Conservatory, where access to the guitar class was denied to me due to lack of space. This dual identity would accompany me until 1987.

A few years later, I came into contact with the record label Lizard, founded by Giovanni Unterberger (later transformed into a music school), and with the inspiration and support of Giovanni and the label’s environment, I created various record and editorial publications between ’82 and ’83: the book of guitar transcriptions published by Berben “The Ragtime of Scott Joplin”, the album “Silk & Steel” where I participated with two compositions of my own and a transcription from Scott Joplin, as well as a participation in the RAI1 television show “Mister Fantasy”.

Bass Trip

On one side, the guitar, on the other, the academic study of double bass at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence, where I graduated in 1984 in Alfredo Brandi’s class and then under the guidance of Franco Petracchi, known as a tutor for the double bass section of the OGI – Orchestra Giovanile Italiana di Fiesole. He immediately became my Maestro; I followed him to the Advanced Courses of the Accademia Chigiana di Siena and especially onto the courses of the Walter Stauffer Academy in Cremona, which I attended from ’85, the year of the Accademia’s establishment, until ’89.

"This dual identity would accompany me until 1987."

Meanwhile, in ’87, I got my first stable job at the Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova . It was a year of great changes and important decisions. Suddenly, the days became too short to adequately pursue everything I wanted, and so, after spending about 15 years never separated from it for a single day, I made the radical and somewhat aggressive decision to not touch the guitar for at least a year.

So I pushed even further on what now seemed to be my only identity, that of a double bass player. Soon enough more successes came in orchestra competitions, up to the position of Second double bass in the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra in ’88, and prizes in various solo competitions: the Città di Genova, the Dragonetti-Città di Venezia, the Nicanor Zabaleta in San Sebastian, the Città di Palermo, the TIM-Trofeo Internazionale della Musica, the Valentino Bucchi Prize in Rome in 1993.

I must admit I have been professionally a bit restless: in ’91, after winning the position at the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra, I left the Maggio Orchestra, but I never entered La Scala, because a few days before catching the train to Milan, I was offered to stay at the Maggio as Principal double bass. After about a year, I also left that position, and after winning the Ministerial Competition for Teaching Positions, I began teaching at Italian Conservatories, first a year in Mantua, then three years in Milan. In ’96, I left the Milan Conservatory to join the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome as Principal double bass, a position I would leave after a few years to return again to Florence, where I would stay until 2012. After that I took up a permanent role in Geneva as a teacher at the Haute Ecole de Musique, a position I still hold.

“In the meantime, I have had numerous collaborations with many other orchestras, including La Scala in Milan, I Solisti Veneti, and the London Symphony Orchestra.”

Another important aspect of my professional life is chamber music and soloist activity, which has allowed me to attend festivals and events around the world, meeting artists and creating collaborations that have been and continue to be an invaluable source of inspiration.

I have always been a passionate educator and I enjoy giving masterclasses around the world: Europe, Russia, USA, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay.
As a soloist, I have recorded for Denon, Stradivarius, Velut Luna, NBBrecords.

The latter is a record label founded together with my wife Cristina in 2000, an independent label, a “home of the double bass,” a place of inspiration, to share ideas and energies for a musical production revolving around the double bass. The label is now on its forty-second release, and many friends and colleagues have been hosted at NBB.

Since leaving the orchestra in 2012, I have been devoting more energy to composing for my instrument; I have written many pieces for solo double bass, where I experiment and explore new solutions and ideas rooted in the techniques I used as a teenager to compose my pieces on the guitar (the Ballads, the Three Little Pieces, variations on Bottesini, Nightmare after Strauss).

In recent years, I have also created some works for solo instrument and orchestra, such as “XUITE-0, a modular suite for amplified double bass and orchestra”; “Sliding Doors, for violin, double bass, orchestra, and cell phone ringtones activated by the audience”; “Concerto for Double Bass and String Orchestra.”
In recitals, whether alone, with piano, or with an orchestra, I enjoy exploring a diverse range of repertoires, naturally including works by Bottesini and Rota, as well as my own compositions and rock music tribute. I also delve into lesser known repertoire, such as the Concerto for Double Bass and Strings “Braevissimo” by Ennio Morricone and “Concerto for double bass and orchestra, op. 76” by Nikolai Kapustin, of which I had the privilege to perform the premiere in Palermo in 2023.

In 2021, the latest album “mio caro Bottesini” was released together with pianist Alessandra Ammara. A “zero-km” album that saw the light during of Covid. Alessandra lives just a few doors away from my house, and the collaboration was born precisely thanks to the travel restrictions imposed by the period. The album represents a return to a more traditional repertoire as a tribute to the great virtuoso/composer/conductor Giovanni Bottesini on the bicentenary of his birth.
Since 2009, I have been teaching at the HEM – Haute Ecole de Musique de Geneve, and starting from 2024, I have also been teaching at the Stauffer Academy in Cremona.

THE BASS GANG

A special chapter in my chamber music activity is represented by “The Bass Gang” double bass quartet. Founded in 2002 by Andrea Pighi, Antonio Sciancalepore, Amerigo Bernardi, and myself.
And for 20 years, we have been touring the world with an extremely heterogeneous, entertaining, and virtuosic repertoire.
Together we have released three CDs (Evasioni & Fughe, 2003; La Contrabbassata, 2005; Le Basse Stagioni, 2022) and a DVD (The Chianti Concert, 2007). Concerts, specials, and interviews dedicated to this quartet have been broadcasted by NHK in Japan, KBS in Korea, and RAI in Italy.

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