Andrea De Vitis plays Altamira Guitars from Rome, Italy

We visited Andrea De Vitis in his hometown in Rome, Italy to play two of our models — Guadagnini and Hanson N3 Double Top. Listen to Andrea perform pieces on these instruments, hear his thoughts about the instruments, and give explanations and tips for practicing and performing these works.

0:00 🎵 'Prelude from Suite BWV 823' by Bach
2:11 🎵 'Nuvola Barocca’ by Bussotti
6:09 Talking about the first two pieces and the Altamira Hanson 'N3' model
10:39 Chat over lunch
12:22 🎵 'Sonata No. 33 M.S. 84' by Paganini
15:29 🎵 'Capriccio N. 30, Op. 20’ by Legnani
17:12 🎵 'Minuet Op. 11, N. 6' by Sor
19:13 Talking about the Altamira 'Guadagnini' guitar and the pieces played
25:16 Credits

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Andrea De Vitis is one of those interprets who conquer audience and jury thanks to the high definition sharpness of his way of playing, to the extraordinary control of dynamics and agogic and to the clarity with which he asserts his thought, whilst also translating the thought of the Author. (Il Fronimo, 2016).

Andrea De Vitis is acclaimed for “the infinitely varied color palette he creates” (American Record Guide), the “absolute control over the details of the performance” (Musica) and for the capacity of being always “perfectly attuned to the sensibility underlyning the music” (Music Web International).

Born in Roma in 1985, Andrea received his musical training from Leonardo De Angelis, Paolo Pegoraro, Frédéric Zigante, Oscar Ghiglia, Carlo Marchione, Marco Cerroni.

His intense concert activity has led to invitations to perform as a soloist by leading festivals and orchestras in prestigious concert halls around the world (including Liszt Academy in Budapest, Grand Theatre in Shanghai, Krakow Academy of Music, The Sheen Theatre in New York, Royal Academy in Copenhagen, Omni Foundation in San Francisco, Saint Petersburg State Academic Capella).

De Vitis is considered today one of the most renowned guitar teachers and motivators: he is in high demand to teach masterclasses in prestigious academies (Maastricht Conservatorium, California State University, Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, Conservatoire de Lyon, TU University Dublin, Koblenz Guitar Academy) or hold lectures on classical guitar repertoire (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Bucharest Academy of Music). He has taught in Italian Conservatoires and since autumn 2023 he is Univ. Prof. for guitar at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.

He is an active recording artist and his extensive discography includes recordings for Naxos Records: an album about Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s works for guitar and the double CD “Alexandre Tansman complete works for guitar”, which includes the world premiere of newly discovered pieces and urtext versions of the other published compositions.

For the recording of Tansman’s complete works, he received the “Golden Guitar prize for the best CD” from the International Guitar Convention in Milan and some tracks from the album are included in the film “Impetus” by Benjamin Knoebl.

He recorded also for Vatican Radio, Slovenian National Radio, Radio Zacatecas (Mexico), Dotguitar.

Many times awarded by international critics, his albums and videos have already become reference recordings.

De Vitis has won more than 40 prizes in various international competitions, including first prizes at Guitar Masters (Poland), Forum Gitarre Wien (Austria), Iserlohn International Guitar Competition (Germany), Certamen “Julian Arcas” de Almerìa (Spain), Budapest International Guitar Competition (Hungary), Gargnano, Gorizia (Italy); he also received 3 “golden guitar awards” at the International Guitar Convention in Milan and a special artistic medal from Senate of Italian Republic.

A supporter of new repertoire for the guitar, De Vitis performed the world premiere of numerous pieces dedicated to him and he regularly cooperates with composers such as Inés Badalo, Giorgio Colombo Taccani, Francesco Telli, Angelo Gilardino, Steve Goss, Marco Ramelli, Marco De Biasi, Giacomo Susani, Kevin Swierkosz-Lenart, Nicola Jappelli. He also premiered “Tre danze in modo polonico” by Alexandre Tansman, recently rediscovered.

He is also very active as music publisher: very interested in the transcription process, he published his versions of Ciaccona from Partita BWV 1004, Suite BWV 823 and Fantasia BWV 917 by Johann Sebastian Bach, Valses Poeticos by Enrique Granados. He also cooperated with Italian guitarist and musicologist Frédéric Zigante for the volumes dedicated to Alexandre Tansman’s music (Suites and Hommages). His editions and transcriptions are published by Hal Leonard, Productions d’Oz, Durand, Curci.

In addition to his concert and teaching activities, he acts as a juror at highly regarded competitions in Europe, including Forum Gitarre Wien, Budapest International Competition, Kutna Hora International Competition.