GIOVANNI GRANO (ITALY)
Giovanni Grano was born in Basilicata. He received his first degree in guitar from R. Chiesa at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan. He graduated summa cum laude from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Bologna, studied Early Music at the School of Palaeography and Musical Philology at the University of Cremona, and has published musicological essays and reviews for the publishers Bulzoni, Zanibon, Rugginenti and Bͨrben. He studied composition at the Milan Conservatory of Music with Franco Donatoni and conducting in Prague with Jan Stvan. In 1997 he was invited as a guest professor by Columbia University in New York to give various seminars and conferences on Paganini and Boccherini, and in 2005 by the University of Valencia and the University of Brasov, Romania. Professor of poetic and dramatic literature, music history and aesthetics and guitar at the Mantova Conservatory, he is now a full professor of guitar at the Cesare Pollini Conservatory, Padova. In June 2005 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Musicology by the University of Brasov, Romania. He has given recitals in theatres and auditoriums around the world, and has participated in festivals such as Prague Spring, Segovia Festival 2002, Mantova Musica Festival, Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi, Valencia Guitar Days among many others, as well as recording concerts for the Austrian ORF, RAI TV and other national television channels in European countries. He has recorded a collection of monographic CDs dedicated to Romantic and Contemporary Music for solo guitar, Romantic Music for Guitar, Autumnal, Paganini Sonatas for violin and guitar with V. Brodsky, on the Austrian label Zero Point Records and Phantasia on the Italian label Symposium. In May 2005 he gave a guitar recital at the renowned Royal Festival Hall in London. Considered by the specialized critics to be among the best European guitarists of his generation, he has given around 1000 concerts and also directed a dozen international congresses and festivals such as Mantova, Vulture, Groznjan, Rassegna di S.Maria di Sala, Suoni nella Badia, Convegno su G. Strozzi e GMTrabaci, Museo di Sera etc. Giovanni Grano plays an Alhambra guitar model Jose Maria Vilaplana NT Series
