Andrea Damiani

Andrea Damiani has studied the lute with Diana Poulton, Anthony Bailes and Hopkinson Smith. He has performed extensively – both as soloist and continuo player on archlute and theorbo – in the main European countries and the USA.
Mr. Damiani has recorded for and broadcast on several major European radio networks such as the BBC, ORTF, RAI, WDR, etc.  As a specialist in basso continuo on the theorbo and archlute, he has participated in numerous recordings for Arcana, Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Opus 111, Philips, Symphonia and Tactus. As a soloist, he  has given numerous recitals dedicated to the repertoire of the Italian renaissance and baroque, and of 18th-century German composers, especially J. S. Bach and S. L. Weiss.
His passion for research on lute history and literature has led him to discover some previously unknown sources and to realize their recording. For the E lucean le stelle label he has recorded two CDs: J’ay pris amour, devoted to the heartshaped manuscript preserved in Pesaro, Biblioteca Oliveriana, the main early lute source before the Ottaviano Petrucci’s prints; and Folias, containing music from XVII cent. Central Italy sources for archlute, theorbo and guitar, among them a recently found manuscript containing unknown guitar pieces by Giovanni Paolo Foscrini. He has also recorded a CD dedicated to Il Fronimo of Vincenzo Galilei, for Stradivarius. Mr. Damiani has been invited to teach at several international early music courses, such as those held in Chiusi della Verna, Erice, Lanciano, by the Cini Foundation of Venice and the International Summer Course held in Urbino. He is lute professor at the Conservatorio S. Cecilia in Rome and at the Conservatorio “Ottorino Respighi” in Latina. From 2007 to 2018 Mr. Damiani has been President of the Fondazione Italiana per la Musica Antica and director of the Urbino Early Music Course.
Mr. Damiani is also the author of Method for Renaissance Lute, published by Ut-Orpheus, Bologna.