Guitar, Composer
Friday
February 22, 2019
7:30 pm
WPAC Concert Hall
Masterclass
Saturday
February 23, 2019
9:00 am – 11:00 am
WPAC Instrumental Hall
2019 MIGF Festival Pass
is available to attend all festival events at a single reduced price:
Leonardo De Angelis, guitarist and composer recognized as one of the most interesting concert performers of the last generations, representing the passage and integration between the great guitar instrumental tradition and the new contemporary musical languages.
Was born in Rome in 1962, he began to play with his father Claudio, making his debut in a 13- year-old concert at Castel S. Angelo, Italy and graduating in Conservatory with honors and mention.
In 1981 he won the “Pittaluga” International Competition in Alessandria is thus the youngest winner among all the editions of the prestigious Premiors known by the Geneva Federation.
He studied with the greatest guitar masters of the twentieth century: with Alirio Diaz in Rome from 1977 to 1982 and with Andres Segovia in Madrid from 1982 to 1986. Segovia gave him the recognition of “musical temperament always agreeing with the major needs of art” in a letter of autograph presentation.
Since 1989 he was constantly collaborating with Leo Brouwer, the greatest living guitar composer, playing and recording his guitar and orchestra pieces under his direction. In 1999 Brouwer dedicated to Leonardo De Angelis his most imposing composition, the “Concerto Cantata” for guitar, chorus and orchestra, symbolically written on themes taken from the “Missa De Angelis”.
In his solo career:
● played in the main European concert halls: Ateneo in Madrid, Sala Verdi Milano, Mozarteum, RTF in Paris, Gran Teatro di Cordoba, Maria Callas in Athens, Teatro Argentina in Rome, Palacio Fois in Lisbon, Paraninfo in Seville, etc.
● invited to the Festivals of: Havana, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bratislava, Volos, Zwolle, etc. ● recorded for RAI in Rome, Radio France in Paris, BBC in London, ORT in Vienna, etc.
● has recorded CD for Quadrivium, Decca and Universal.
● obtained the consent of the specialized press: “can express his profound musicality with explosive force without ever losing grace and elegance” (Classical Guitar Magazine); “a precious and refined artist, sure of his art” (Les cahiers de la Guitared ); etc.
His academic activity:
● he is Professor of Guitar at the Conservatory of Music of Perugia.
● holds masterclasses at the Polytechnic of Lancashire, the Iggesund Akademie, the University of Leuven, the Salamanca Conservatory, etc.
● he was Professor of Methodology of music education at the Roma Tre University (2000/2008), publishing the reference texts “Methodology of music and sound communication” (Mondo Nuovo, Rome 2003) and “Music for growth” (Cittadella, Assisi) 2004).
● held the Organology Courses of acute instruments at the University of Ferrara (1995/1996).
His artistic and institutional roles:
● consultant for the Guitar Festivals of Assisi, Rieti, Sermoneta, Pistoia.
● artistic director of the “Guitar Itinerary” for the Angel Theater in Rome.
● member of the Copyright Committee.
● academic counselor for the Perugia Music Conservatory.
In his recent pieces as a composer he has held first performances at the Segovia Festival in Madrid, Algerian Radio in Algiers and Baroque Saal in Vienna.