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Meet Francesco Lo Castro. Born in Salerno and raised in Foggia, Italy in 1974, guitarist and composer Francesco Lo Castro started studying guitar late in life, aged 25 he developed his guitar styles and technique under the tutoring of the great south Italian maestro Gianni Cataleta. He quit his Economic Studies (and a full time job in marketing) to fully focus on music in 2004.

Two years after, he graduated with honors in music performance from a BMus at Thames Valley University (London). In the same year, he won the Best Guitarist Award at the Guitar Institute in London where he attended tutoring classes by Shaun Baxter and Iain Scott among others. He then earned a scholarship for MMus, completed in 2008, by winning the Vice Chancellor’s Award at TVU.

His guitar style and composing techniques suggest an intriguing combination of melodic Italian tradition, visual sound-scapes, modern jazz and soundtracks writing. This is evident in the 7 albums he has released under the Flocastro Records Label. “Dresden” ( from Chasing Beauty ) is listed in the Top 200 Downloads of all time, from the prestigious ALL ABOUT JAZZ USA and his works have united audience and critics alike.

Since 2009, he has been teaching on the BA Course held by the Academy of Music and Sound (Wolverhampton University). He has also collaborated and performed with legends such as Jim Mullen (Morrisey-Mullen), recorded for Geoff Wilkinson (Us3) and with contemporary musicians such Francesco Mendolia (Incognito), Richard Sadler (Neil Cowley Trio), Damien Nolan (VV Brown), Roberto Manzin (James Brown), Fulvio Sigurtà, Maurizio Minardi, Matteo Becucci (X Factor Italian Winner in 2009) and Bruno D’Ambra among others.

He is also known and recognised for his association with young Italian multi-platinum recording artist and entertainer Patrizio Buanne, with whom he has recorded, written and toured with since 2010. Australia, Asia, USA, Europe and South Africa.

Francesco Lo Castro has performed in his career in some of the most renowned and prestigious venues such as the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Hamer Hall (Melbourne), the State Theatre (Sydney), The Concert Hall (New York), the Expo Centre (Singapore), the Berklee Performance Centre (Boston), the Benedum (Pittsburgh), Barbican (London) and Palatrussardi (Milan).

To find out more visit his website.