Italian guitarist Andrea Bissoli is the author, artistic director and lead interpreter in Villa-Lobos: The Guitar Manuscripts, a ground-breaking international recording project that has won widespread praise in the press. A selection from the tracklist has been played on the BBC, Classic FM, Radio France, WDR, Radio y Televisión Española, Rai, ABC and many North American networks.
The Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra also took part in the project, recording the Concerto pour guitare et petit orchestre and the Introdução aos Choros, with Andrea Bissoli in the role of soloist. The recording sessions took place in Belo Horizonte in 2012, the same year that the Minas Gerais Philharmonic won the Carlos Gomes Award for best Brazilian orchestra.
Bissoli gave his first recital at 13, performing Villa-Lobos’s Cinq Préludes, and since then has won awards at numerous music competitions in his native Italy. He has studied with internationally renowned artists, including Stefano Grondona, Laura Mondiello, Alirio Díaz, Paul Galbraith and Oscar Ghiglia.
In 2006, he formed the guitar duo Phèdre Adroit with Federica Artuso. The duo have studied baroque music with Monica Huggett and Sigiswald Kuijken, and play 19th-century music on two period instruments (‘La Prevotte’, ‘Lacote’). Their repertoire includes an all-Villa-Lobos programme made up of unpublished transcriptions for two guitars, created by Andrea Bissoli.
Bissoli performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in Italy as well as abroad. He plays a guitar made by Jacques Vincenti, strung with New Nylgut strings by Aquila Corde Armoniche.
Listen to an interview with Bissoli about the Naxos project given at the Universidad de Salamanca (with English translation)
For more information, visit www.andreabissoli.com.