A native of Italy, D’Agostino has made his considerable international mark as a musical artist on the guitar since he arrived in America 40 years ago. In 2017 Guitar Player listed him as one of the 50 transcendent guitar superheroes of all times. The CD “Every Step of The Way” was awarded by Acoustic Guitar’s People’s Choice Awards with a Bronze medal for Best Acoustic Album of All Time. His signature Seagull acoustic guitar has been voted among the ten best signature guitars by Guitar Player magazine.
Peppino gives guitar workshops, master classes and seminars worldwide. Top leading publishers such as Truefire, Alfred Publishing, Hal Leonard and Acoustic Guitar Magazine Books have published his compositions and instructional methods.
To date Peppino has recorded 19 CD’s, performed in over thirty-five countries at international festivals and concert halls. He has shared the stage with such greats as Larry Carlton, Eric Johnson, Tommy Emmanuel, Leo Kottke, Martin Taylor, Roland Dyens, David Tanenbaum and many more. D’Agostino’s latest solo CD ‘Connexion’ was released by A-Train Entertainment.
“Peppino writes wonderful guitar pieces. He’s one of my favorite composers for this cranky instrument. Plus, he’s a tone player. I love his sound… gets the resin and the wood.”–Leo Kottke
Peppe Voltarelli is a Calabrian singer, songwriter, actor and writer. He has been active since 1990 as the founding voice and leader of Il parto delle nuvole pesanti, a cult Italian new folk band. As a solo artist, he has released seven studio albums, four soundtracks, and two concerts. He won the Targa Tenco three times, with “Ultima notte a Malá Strana” in 2010 as best album in dialect, with “Voltarelli canta Profazio” in 2016, and with “Planetario” in 2021, both as best performer album. He was the lead actor and co-writer of the film “The true legend of Tony Vilar” by Giuseppe Gagliardi, the first Italian mokumentary. He boasts collaborations with Claudio Lolli, Teresa De Sio, Sergio Cammariere, Otello Profazio, Roy Paci, Carmen Consoli, Bandabardò, and Amy Denio. His intense concert activity has led him to play in 23 countries around the world and his records have been released in Europe, Argentina, Canada, and the United States. His latest work, the album “La grande corsa verso Lupionòpolis”, was recorded in New York and published by Visage Music in 2023.
Zafarán crosses time and boundaries, and incorporates musical traditions from around the Mediterranean, weaving together such diverse threads as Southern Italian chants, Sephardic love songs, Romani laments, and Turkish and Greek folk tunes. With driving rhythms, virtuosic improvisation, and the powerful voice of award-winning Italian singer Carmen Marsico, Zafarán bridges languages and cultures with their own eclectic blend of musical styles, combining deep traditions with original songs and ideas.
Musicians:
Carmen Marsico, voice
Björn Wennås, classical guitar, mandola & chitarra battente
Dan Meyers, recorders, zampogna & ocarina
Featuring Giuseppe Paradiso on percussion
Alla Boara seeks to bring recognition and new life to Italy’s diverse history of regional folk music. Their modern arrangements of near-extinct folk songs are variously surprising, playful, mournful, tender, and bewitching. Alla Boara’s dynamic work aims to inspire audiences of all ethnic heritages to treasure their musical roots and consider historical songs’ contemporary cultural relevance. The vision of drummer and composer Anthony Taddeo, Alla Boara also features vocalist Amanda Powell (Apollo’s Fire), guitarist Dan Bruce, trumpeter Tommy Lehman, bassist Ian Kinnaman, and accordionist and keyboardist Clay Colley. Currently touring their first record, Le Tre Sorelle, Alla Boara has received critical acclaim for its originality and accessibility and was recently featured in NPR’s “Shuffle”, SWR2 in Germany, All About Jazz, Jazz Weekly, and was predicted to have a bright future by Cleveland Magazine.
