There was always music in our house. My father had an immense LP and then CD collection, often with the best recordings of a personal selection of favourite music. My brother learnt the guitar and had not only three, but also owned a Renaissance lute and a charango.
I began my musical career in 1979, learning the contralto recorder with the first flute of the local symphony orchestra.
In 1985, having at my disposal an old Pleyel upright piano, untuneable due to its wooden frame and that I had trouble passing on. The following year I began formal piano lessons with a graduate of the Paris Conservatoire, purchasing a Baldwin upright that made more noise than anything else! It was on this piano that I began to compose short piano pieces and make arrangements. Most of these have been collected and published in suites and cycles. Among these I can mention the Simple Suite, op 1, the Two Impressions op 2, the Two Idylls op 3, the Suite in the old Style (arrangements of English folk songs) op 4 and the Three popular Songs (Arrangements of songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney) op 6.
I also learnt harmony, counterpoint and composition privately, while pursuing and obtaining a degree as Bachelor in Law, which I obtained in 1989.
I remember up composition because at the time, the early '90s, it seemed to me there was no place for my style of music in a world that seemed only to have place for Schönberg, Boulez, Webern, Stockhausen and Berio. It was only in the early 2000's that I began noticing contemporary music that is actually pleasant to hear. That was the moment I said to myself, "but all along I was writing music like that!"
In 2018, following my young daughter's admission to the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, where she learnt the violin, I began again to compose, arranging and writing music that she and I could play together. The first piece of this new phase was the sonata for violin and piano in D major, which has now been published, as well as arrangements of children's songs, popular tunes and nursery rhymes.
I have several styles, often writing pieces in a modified historical style, while still using some contemporary elements, principally in my latest works.
I believe one of the things that has made me turn my back on “the Modern” were my many experiments when I was young. We had a post horn at home, as well as some old guitars, but I also was very inventive, building flutes from plastic pipes and cork, using hosepipes as horns and elastic bands as Jews' harps. I cannot say I was inspired by the results of these experiments and have not yet found reason to revise my opinion.
Having recently learnt how to use computer programmes to "engrave" music, I have revised most of my oeuvre and have written new pieces, some educational, for violin and piano, and other works of greater complexity.
In 2024 I began to attend the two-year Specialisation Course in Composition at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, the main instructors being Andrea Portera and Valentina Peleggi.
I am also having my law degree recognised in Italy, hopefully obtaining my degree in June 2026.
For the specialisation course I wrote my first orchestral work, the Vesper op 40.
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