Carlo Domeniconi
Carlo Domeniconi was born in Cesena (Italy) in 1947. He began to study the guitar with Carmen Lenzi-Mozzani at the age of 13. At that time he also started to compose his first pieces. Having obtained a diploma from the Conservatory of Pesaro when he was only 17 years old, he went to (West) Berlin where he gained a second diploma. He also went on to study composition and held a lecturing post at the College of Arts (Hochschule der Künste, Berlin) from 1969 to 1992. At one stage (1977–1980), he taught guitar as the first teacher at the Istanbul Conservatory.
Owing to his familiarity with Indian, Arabian and Turkish musical forms, rhythmical and tonal systems, he was able to endow his works with a highly distinctive idiom and to develop a personal style entirely his own.
The Italian composer and guitarist Carlo Domeniconi is one of today’s leading guitar artists. His compositions are principally for guitar, whether solo, duo, trio, quartet or in conjunction with other instruments or voice. In addition, Carlo Domeniconi has to date written more than 20 guitar concertos, of which approximately half are for solo guitar, and half for various groupings of instruments. Among the most frequently performed of Domeniconi’s works are Medium Sweet Guitar Concerto, Concerto Mediterraneo for two guitars, Concerto di Berlinbul for Turkish saz (baglama) and guitar, and El Trino del Diablo (The Devil’s Trill) for solo violin, speaker, soprano, two guitars, string quartet, accordion, piano, viola da gamba and percussion. This last piece was performed in Berlin on the occasion of Domeniconi’s 50th birthday.
As a player, Carlo Domeniconi has performed his own music at regular concerts all over the world for more than 30 years. Moreover, many of his compositions are played by renowned musicians such as David Russell, Alvaro Pierri, John Williams, the LAGQ, Dale Kavanagh, Marco Socías, Pavel Steidel, Shin-ichi Fukuda, among many others. Pieces such as Koyunbaba, Variations on an Anatolian Folksong, Hommage à Jimi Hendrix, Toccata in Blue, Sindbad are now an integral part of concert programmes. Several CD recordings of these compositions are commercially available. Numerous reviews and critiques of Carlo Domeniconi have appeared, for example in Classical Guitar, Le Cahier de la Guitare, Il Fronimo, Gitarre Aktuell, Gitarre und Laute, guitart. Two are quoted here:
„Domeniconi’s music seeks repeatedly the synthesis of East and West. He seems able to take the quintessence of different cultures and tell them anew. A hypnotic inevitability goes through his music.”
— Michel Lydon, Soundboard, New York 2001.
“An element of hypnosis is present in much of Carlo Domeniconi’s work. Surrender to it, and the chances are that you will enjoy the music on his own terms; begin to analyse it, and you will find yourself wondering if it has quite enough to satisfy your western ears.”
— Colin Cooper, Classical Guitar 2008.
