Francesco was born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1973. He became interested in music at a very young age, playing piano and guitar.
After high school he studied jazz guitar, ear training, arranging , took classical guitar lessons and earned the five year certificate of classical guitar studies completion.
Between 1992 and 1995 he attended the university of literature in Palermo where he focused in Ethnomusicology and History of Music and started playing as sideman and leader in several small and big bands.
In 1995 he participated at the Concert for 100 guitars, a composition written by the American composer Rhys Chatam and performed in Palermo at Teatro Verdura.
He attended many workshops such as San Vito Jazz 93-96, Umbria Jazz 1996, Siena Jazz 1997.
In 1997 he was student of Gunther Shuller’s School for Jazz Big Band instrumentalists in Palermo.
In 1998 he won a scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music and moved to Boston to study jazz guitar, performance and composition.
He has studied with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mick Goodrick, Jon Damian, Bret Wilmott, Vuk Kulenovic, John Bavicchi, Bruce Bartlett, Ted Peace and had the chance to perfom with great artists such as Gary Burton, Paul Jeffrey, Bob Moses, Ferenc Nemeth, Daniele Camarda, Kendrick Scott, Dayna Stephens.
While in Boston he has peformed in several Jazz clubs and was invited to play at “North Carolina Jazz Festival” Raleigh Durham , “Dante Alighieri Society of Massachussets “ Cambridge, “Tufts University” “Berklee Performance Center” “Mass Art University”, Boston.
In 2001 he moved to New York where he met and played with many interesting musicians and artists and was also hired as staff member at Berklee College, working for Bob Stoloff, Kevin Mahogany, Donna Mc Elroy, Bill Pearce.
From 2002 to 2004 he was also member of sicilian folk music band “Tammorra” playing in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy.
After a couple of years spent between NY and Europe, he recently moved back to Italy where he is currently teaching and promoting his projects.
In 2006 he performed ar Werkstatt der Kulturen in Berlin, won the first price for the best livesoundtrack composition at “ Strade del Cinema festival” in Aosta, Italy, performed at “Kals Art Movie Festival” in Palermo.
He has written music for contemporary dance performances and has been invited to few artist in residence programs such as CESTA (Czech Republic), I AM YOU ARE (Italy) and had a chance to collaborate with audio and visual artists like Andrea Parkins, Julia Naskova, Matt Ostrowsky.
He has toured New York and Boston in 2007 with his solo guitar performance promoting his new solo CD titled ‘ Clouds in Motion’.
From October to December of 2007 Francesco has been resident in Paris as a winner of Recollets International Residency Program, sponsored by the Ministry fo Foreign Affairs and by Direction des Affaires Culturelles , Mairie de Paris. As sideman guitarist he performed in few shows of the music – theather piece ‘ Ultimo Volo’, composed by Italian songwriter Pippo Pollina.
He has been invited among others to ‘Hamburg JazzTage Festival ‘in Hamburg, Germany , ‘Upload Festival’ in Bolzano, Italy, ‘Sapobla Jazz Festival’ in Palma de Mallorca, 2008, 2009 , 2010 and 2011 edition, and to ‘Van der peek artist in residence program’ in Amsterdam in March 2009, where he performed at prestigious YSBREKER.
He has several CD’S as sideman and a few as a leader, the last one is ‘Unsaid Songs0 for the Italian independent label ‘ WORKIN’ LABEL’ .
Along his career as guitarist and composer Francesco is one of the most on demand guitar teacher in Italy, and is currently teaching jazz guitar privately and at the Music Conservatory of Palermo and Trapani. He has been invited to teach jazz guitar masterclass at Escola Superior de Musica, Lisbon; University of Rzezsow, Poland; BCU, Latvian Academy of Music, Latvia, Birmingham.
