Sergio Sorrentino

Sergio Sorrentino is “one of the most important contemporary Italian guitarists” (RAI Radio Tre).

As a performer he promotes the classical guitar and electric guitar contemporary repertoire. As a composer and improviser his music is based on sonic research and combines elements of contemporary classical music, minimalism, avant-garde, ambient, experimental.

His CD Dream – American Music for Electric Guitar (Mode Records) contains works for electric guitar by John Cage, David Lang, Jack Vees, Elliott Sharp, Alvin Curran (a new piece especially written for this CD), Morton Feldman (world premiere recording on physical CD of “The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar”), Christian Wolff (complete works for solo electric guitar and the world premiere of “Going West”), Larry Polansky, Van Stiefel. Dream was reviewed and highlighted in the New York Times by Seth Colter Walls as one of the “Week’s Best Classical Music Moments”. 

He plays with the great Gavin Bryars as a member of the Gavin Bryars Italian Ensemble and he play in duo with Elliott Sharp and John King.
He studied with Francesco Langone, Angelo Gilardino, Mario Dell’Ara, Leo Brouwer, Mark White (Berklee College of Music Summer Course) and composition with Marco Di Bari. In 2010 he obtained the Academic Guitar Diploma with Honors at the Novara Conservatory, with a thesis on Italian avant-garde guitar music. Sorrentino started his international concert career very early and has held solo concerts and master classes in many important festivals and venues (Yale University, Sprague Hall in New Haven, Spectrum in New York, Festival de Música Contemporánea de La Habana in Casa de Las Américas, Cuba, Italian Cultural Institute of Paris, Sala Biala of the Wilanow Museum (Warsaw, Poland), International Guitar Research Conference/University of Surrey (UK), Vortex in London, Performance Room of Luxembourg, Highscore Festival, Filharmonia Gorzowska Concert Hall, ON Cologne Neue Musik Festival, In Situ Art Society in Bonn, Spectrum in Berlin, Music Society of La Scala Theater of Milan, Goldoni Theater of Venice, Nuova Consonanza Festival in Rome, Lagonegro International Guitar Festival, Società del Quartetto of Vercelli, Auditorium Renzo Piano of L’Aquila, SpazioMusica Festival of Cagliari, Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte di Montepulciano, AngelicA Festival of Bologna, etc.). In 2012 he performed, with the Gorzow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” for guitar and orchestra with Cecilia Rodrigo, the composer’s daughter, as a special guest).

He has worked with important composers and musicians like Sylvano Bussotti, Azio Corghi, Bruno Canino, Alda Caiello, John Russell, Machinefabriek, Steven Mackey, Andrzej Bauer, Marco Angius, Giorgio Battistelli, Carlo Boccadoro, Mauro Bonifacio, I Solisti Aquilani. He plays in duo with the great contemporary music guitarist Magnus Andersson and with the vibraphone player Antonio Caggiano. He has debuted many new guitar solo compositions (in concert and on CD). Many composers including Alvin Curran, Mark Delpriora (Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard), Mauro Montalbetti, Stefano Taglietti, Gavin Bryars, Tom Armstrong (University of Surrey, UK) have written special pieces just for him. Van Stiefel (West Chester University) composed especially for Sorrentino “Bound”, a Concerto for electric guitar and orchestra.

As a sound artist he has made performances and sound installations at MACRO, Palazzo Merulana, Mercati di Traiano (Rome), Art Site Fest (Turin) and he has made performances for Baldo Diodato exhibitions and Gillo Dorfles exhibition (Palazzo Reale, Milan).

Sorrentino has recorded for Mode Records, Rai Trade, Creative Sources, Silta Records, Carish, Curci, Sinfonica, RMN Classical and various others. He released CDs based on contemporary classical guitar music, New Music for electric guitar, impro and electronic projects (among others Vignettes with Machinefabriek). Sorrentino also released the Sylvano Bussotti Complete Music for Solo Guitar, including the World Premiere of Popolaresca, an unedited manuscript by Bussotti.  As a composer, he has won the First Edition of the International Competition of Guitar Composition “Goffredo Petrassi” of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, with the piece “De Citharae Natura” for solo guitar.

Casa Ricordi and Universal have published his transcriptions for classical and electric guitar of the Azio Corghi’s compositions “Tang’ Jok(Guitar)” and “De Nocturno Visu”.

He teaches master class in contemporary classical and electric music for the Viotti Institute in Vercelli.

Some Reviews:

“The electric guitar in concert music is in wonderful hands with Sergio Sorrentino. He plays with virtuosity, sensitivity, and intelligence. We can look to him to continue the growth of the concert electric guitar’s reputation and the expansion of its repertoire” (Steven Mackey)

“Sergio Sorrentino has performed many of my works for guitar, and also my ensemble pieces that include the guitar and I have the greatest admiration for his work in this respect. I have also performed with him in a number of concerts in Italy and I have enjoyed very much our collaboration. He understands very well my music and plays it with great sensitivity and creative insight. I look forward to many more projects together in the future.” (Gavin Bryars – Billesdon October 8 2018)

“Great Musician” (Ben Verdery – Yale School of Music)

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