Born in York, Francesco first studied the guitar with Graham Wade, biographer of Andres Segovia, Julian Bream and Joaquin Rodrigo, at first privately and from the age of 16 at the City of Leeds College of Music. Whilst at Leeds Francesco twice won the CLCM guitar prize and in his final year the Principle's Prize for Outstanding Performance.
In 1990 he went on to study with Gordon Crosskey and John Williams at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. During his time in Manchester Francesco developed a love of contemporary music and went on to collaborate with composers Bryn Harrison and Ewan Stefani in new commissions for the instrument funded by the Instituto Cervantes. Since leaving College Francesco has combined teaching with a varied performing schedule including broadcasts with Classic FM, This Sunday (Granada TV) and Calendar (Yorkshire TV) and recitals at Festivals including Leeds Rhythms Of The City, Leeds International Concert Season's Spanish Festival, Bath International Guitar Festival, Hebden Bridge Arts Festival, Wirral International Guitar Festival, Harrow Arts Festival, Stoke Newington Contemporary Music Festival, Handel House Museum's Hardly Handel Festival and the London Classical Guitar Festival. Other projects include a collaboration 'Elogio de la Danza' with theatre/dance group Shunt, contribution to the soundtrack of the film 'Tube Mice', a regular recital series at The Old Church, Stoke Newington, session work for the new album by Phil Mison's Cantoma and a guest recital at the 2014 London Classical Guitar Festival at the Bolivar Hall. Most recently Francesco was involved in extensive collaboration with Mezzo-Soprano Gina Fergione. They have commissioned and performed new works by Christopher Scobie, Brian Inglis & David Braid as well as exploring Spanish repertoire for guitar and voice by Garcia Lorca, Manuel de Falla & Joaquin Rodrigo. Recent solo concerts have featured Francesco's new arrangement of J.S Bach’s Chaconne alongside music by Schubert, Mertz, Piazzolla & Brouwer. |