Stefano Barone is a composer, guitar player, producer, video artist, music teacher from Italy. He is considered by the critics as one of the most creative and interesting contemporary acoustic guitarist composers of our time. Born in Naples (Italy, 1978), he started playing music when he was very young. He studied piano at first but picked up the guitar quickly and did not let go. From blues to pop to rock, he went through different musical experiences until he moved to Rome in 2001 and decided to dedicate himself fully to solo acoustic guitar. When he first listened to Michael Hedges's striking album Aerial Boundaries in 2003, he began studying modern acoustic guitar techniques and composition with Pino Forastière. He also embraced contemporary music in general, in particular American minimalism composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Stefano has a masterful guitar technique and an extraordinary control of the electronic effects and devices used in many of his creations. He skillfully uses the devices and effects at his disposition creating great orchestration and harmony. His Neapolitan roots gave him the innate and infallible sense of rhythm and the natural ability to improvise. A perfect balance between acoustic and electronic, he performs live an uninterrupted program in which all the songs played are woven together in the most brilliant methods. With his debut album particolare#uno (Candyrat Records, 2009), Stefano Barone has immediately gained the attention of both of the critics and the public. His song, Batman/Alexander Supertramp, has earned over 2 millions views on Youtube. The song,along with other compositions of his, have been featured on various documentaries, dance shows, animation movies and it been picked as a testimonial song by the International Association “World Centers of Compassion for Children” founded by the Dalai Lama. Stefano is also a music teacher, director and founder of the Istituto Massimo Guitar Orchestra (20 elements guitar ensemble) in Rome. He's composing the soundtrack for 4 documentaries that will be aired on the Italian National Television (RAI) and his music will be used on a new American TV series in 2014. He has performed in Italy, United States, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Panama, Turkey, Switzerland and the UK. He is schedule to perform in Italy, UK, Thaiti, Australia/New Zeland, Caracas and Russia in 2014. He is also scheduled to perform with the Steve Reich's ensemble 2x5 in 2014. COLLABORATIONS & QUOTES Pino Forastiere, Sergio Altamura, Dominic Frasca, Michael Marning, John Stropes, Erik Mongrain, Gareth Pearson, Antonello Papagni, Andrea Sturniolo, Finaz, Eugenio Vatta, Alessia D'Andrea, Andrea Cochetti , Luca Casagrande and many others. “He has an ultra-modern guitar playing technique and he is very skilled.” - Chitarre “A very apt player, someone who truly knows how to invoke a simple melody and rhythm” - Fame Review “Incredibly funky and as cool as anything that can be found in this genre of music” - Suite 101 “An Italian guitarist who has an incredible finger style technique that conjures some amazing harmonic and melodic sounds we didn’t even know an acoustic guitar could do on it’s own” - Fret Base DISCOGRAPHY particolare#uno (Debut solo album) – Candyrat Records, 2009 Guitar Republic (Trio with Pino Forastiere and Sergio Altamura) – Candyrat Records, 2010 Danze Altalenanze (Second solo album) – Candyrat Records 2012 Chemistry Must Be Respected (Radio Edit) – Candyrat Records 2013