Giacomo Fiore at the IIC for a special performance
On December 9, the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco celebrated the Christmas holidays with a great performance by the Italian guitarist Giacomo Fiore. This young and clever classical and finger style guitarist was born in Genoa and his passion for music started when he was 8 years old. Time after time, it became a vital part of his life. He studied with Armando Corsi, one of Genoa’s (and Italy’s) most talented acoustic guitarists. In 2003 he decided to move to the US to turn his passion into reality. He continued his musical studies at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennesse, where he started to become more interested in the world of classical guitar.
After earning his performance degree in guitar at Belmont University in 2006, he chose to go to San Francisco where he attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. There he met a brilliant tutor, David Tanenbaum, who said about him: “Giacomo Fiore is an imaginative and accomplished guitarist who is comfortable in a wide variety of styles. His music making has both flair and depth”. He began focusing his attention on music by non-guitarist composers from the postwar period, a further evidence of his eclecticism.
In the fall of 2009 he joined the Ph.D. program in Cultural Musicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. At the moment, he is researching the development of guitar intonation in the 20th- century American music. This young man, is amazingly well- known in the musical world and he has performed to audiences around the world and recently released his third recording: “Colors: Modern Music for Guitar”, which includes four mesmerizing and evocative works from contemporary composers such as Toru Takemitsu, Michael Tippett, Lou Harrison, and Benjamin Britten.
His performance at the Institute was also an opportunity to learn more about the development of the Italian guitar through the ages and about the new approaches to contemporary guitar. A great concert for a special night, to celebrate Christmas holiday with music.
Valentina Calabrese
contributor
