Self-taught, he started studying the guitar and singing in 1969 for pleasure.
In the 70's, he played in various pop-rock bands and took part in many concerts.
In 1977 he joined the band named "Acquaragia" that later became "Vico del Vecchio".
In this period he began to study and to re-elaborate old popular songs from the Peligna valley,
an area which is situated in the centre of Abruzzo.
With the group, he played in more than 700 concerts in Italy and took part in many radio and television shows.
In 1995, the band "DisCanto", which inherited the cultural heritage of “Vico del Vecchio”, was formed
( listen to the mp3 ), and he became the musical director.
The band "DisCanto" gave more than 300 concerts in Italy, France, Holland, Germany and United States. It was also asked to take part in important musical events and national television shows.
Since the 70's, Michele Avolio has collaborated with many theatrical companies and has composed their music.
He wrote the music for the CD "Il culto di San Domenico a Cocullo" (edited by Amaltea) which came out in 1998, and for the documentary "S. Franco Eremita" edited by the Chamber of
Cultural Arts of L'Aquila, in 2003.
In 2004 he also composed the music for an art exhibit by the painter Michetti and for a video called “Immagini della Nativita' nel territorio abruzzese".
In August of 1998 and 1999 he was in charge of the music for "Notte delle Paure", a play performed on the Laga Mountains.
In 1999, with the collaboration of the "Theatrical Laboratory of Fossa" and the orchestra of "S. Aquilano", he staged "La Madama Pullarola", a play which had been performed in many cities up to the year 2000.
With the same collaboration, he wrote the music and lyrics for the play "La luna si fermo' di camminare" that was gave at the "Spoltore Ensemble" in 2000 and taken on tour in the province of Cagliari in Sardinia.
He was lead vocalist in four songs for the CD of medieval music, "Tempus Transit", published by
Le Cantrici di Euterpe – Aquila Altera , which was produced in 2000.
For many years he has been teaching modern guitar. He also gave singing lessons and taught the use of popular musical instruments.
In 2003 he gave music lessons to the inmates of the prison of Chieti.
He was artistic director in various ethnic music festivals that were given in the towns of Vasto, Capestrano, Civitella Alfedena and Villetta Barrea.
In Sulmona he promoted "Mediterraneo e Dintorni", a musical festival that for many years gave an important place in the cultural scene of Abruzzo.
SARA CIANCONE
cello, percussion and chorus
She graduated at the University of Music in L' Aquila where she specialized in cello.
She played in many orchestras including the Abruzzo Orchestra, the Marsica Orchestra, the "Insieme Strumentale S. Aquilano", L' Ensemble Strumentale Italiano, L' Ensemble of baroque music "Sine Nomine", the Citta' Aperta Orchestra, the Accademia Musicale of Pescara and the
"Camerata Italica" Orchestra.
Out of the classical music scene, she played the cello and was actress in the theatre production "Dannati Angeli” for the theatrical company "Drammateatro" of Popoli. She attended a theatrical laboratory, diretcted by Judith Malina of the "Leaving Theatre".
With the piano player and musicologist Antonello Colimberti she gave concerts of free improvisation.
She was in the band "Noiseful Loop" that played pop-industry music and with this group she took part in the famous festival "Arezzo Wave 98".
Before joining DisCanto, in December 1999, she played in the female band called "Laos" that presented musical arrangements of popular music of some Italian regions such as Abruzzo, Campania, Puglia and Sicily and arrangements of Hebrew music.
ANTONELLO DI MATTEO
italian bag-pipes, clarinet, flutes, accordion and italian melodeon
He studied at the "F.Masci" high school in Chieti.
His interest in the Italian bag-pipes started when he was 14. He went on studying this instrument with excitement and, in a short time, he became a master and went on evolving his technique. His great talent and passion brought him to be the first student and then teacher at the "Zampogne e Ciaramelle d'Abruzzo" Association.
At a very young age he played in many cultural and folkloristic festivals, in Abruzzo (Settembrata Abruzzese in Pescara, Bue di S.Zopito at Loreto Aprutino, Festival of Folklore at Atessa) and in many live nativities.
He also took part in national (Borsa Internazionale del Turismo – Milan; Pastori Di Lunigiana festival – Licciana Nardi, Messina) and international (Basilea, Switzerland) cultural events.
He took part in a lot of conventions and study halls regarding the Italian bagpipes and the flute.
Antonello joined DisCanto in August 2004.
GERMANA ROSSI
violin, accordion, percussion and vocals
At the age of 6 she started studying the accordion, the instrument that she would later put on the side in order to study the violin at the Music School in L'Aquila, where she graduated in 1997.
She devoted the first few years of her career to classical and baroque music.
She played in various orchestras and quartets and took part in many concerts in Italy and in other countries as well.
She founded the music school "Ophelia" (where she now teaches). She also founded the "Gruppo Strumentale dell'Ateneo" (the first university orchestra in Italy) where she was the artistic director
and backup violinist until 2001.
In 1995, she was chosen by the Academy of Music to take part in the theatrical project of TSA, called "Autori allo scoperto”, for which she wrote the lyrics and created the scenes.
Her encounter with the theatrical company, "Drammateatro" of Popoli (Pescara), with which she set up the show "Dannati Angeli", let her appreciate the beauty of popular music; in particular, southern Italian and Hebrew music.
Thanks to this particular experience she started playing her “first” instrument again.
She was co-author and responsible for the music in the play "La Notte delle Paure" performed on the Laga Mountains in 1997.
The encounter with musicians with whom she shared the love for ethnic music inspired her to found the all women band " Laos" Voce del Sud (Voice of the South) which proposed arrangements of Italian and non-Italian traditional popular music.
In February 2000, she joined the band DisCanto and started singing and playing percussions.
COLLABORATORS
DOMENICO MANCINI
violin and accordion
He brilliantly graduated under guidance of M° Mario Ferraris (above first violin at the Scala theatre in Milan) at the Certified Musical Institute “G. Braga” of Teramo and simoultaneously he studied at the University “G. D'Annunzio” of Chieti, where he graduated in Philosophy with a dissertation about the Aesthetic of Music. He has performed in various contests, internships, national and international courses.
He has worked together in different orchestral formations, such as Kinder Orchestra, Youth Symphonic Orchestra “G.Rossini”, Synfonia Cantorum, Youth Philological Orchestra “A.Corelli”, Quintetto Partenopeo, Orchestra of the University“G. D’Annunzio” of Chieti, Quartetto Eufonia, “I Sinfonici”, “Alma de Tango Ensemble”, Orchestra of the theatre Marrucino of Chieti, as solo violin with the “Western Washington University” (Bellingham, USA) ecc.
He has played with world-famous artists such as: Donato Renzetti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Katia Ricciarelli, Jose’ Carreras, Karl Martin, Piero Bellugi, Anthony Flint (first violin in the Orchestra of the Italian Switzerland), Mario Trabucco (above first violin in the Carlo Felice Orchestra of Genova), Giulio Franzetti (above first violin at the Scala theatre of Milan), Pavel Berman, Michele Campanella, Ruggero Ricci, valued as one of the greatest violinists and interpreters of Paganini’s music in the XX century. In the summer 2003 hepartecipated in Claudio Baglioni’s Italian tour (with guest appearances of Laura Pausini, Gianni Morandi, Renato Zero, Ron ecc.) and in 2005 he collaborated with Antonella Ruggiero.
He performed in France, Germany, Israel, Romania, Hungary, Canada, Denmark.
He has now been studying for a few years European and extra-European popular musical literature, in particular Eastern European music, going on trips to Romania and Hungary, performing and improving his knowledge of the Romanì and Klezmer music; without omitting jazz, light music and the study ofimprovisation applied on violin. In the summer 2007 he partecipied in the work-style kept by Aleksey Igudesman about the violin in the world music (Indian, Klezmer, Gypsy, Latin etc.) performing, among others, with Roby Lakatos (the devil’s bow, the king of the Gipsy violinists), Pavel Vernikov, Roman Yanoska and Moni Ovadia.
