Saturday 10 December 2022 at 21.30 Paola Selva, Alex Gillan, Giovanni Ferro, Gabriele Dusi, Giulio Radaelli, Socrate Verona, Gianmarco Astori, Vladmiro Leoni and Teo Ederle they will be protagonists at Six Bars Prison in Florence (SMS Serpiolle – via delle Masse, 38) dated twinning with Zonacustica for an unforgettable evening of music.

The friendship between Zonacustica and the Six Bars Jail dates back a long time, practically to the birth of the two groups (both active since 2006), following the meeting between the Florentine Folk Club and Giovanni Ferro from Verona, founder of the Zonacustica Association. Since then their paths have crossed often and willingly, on the occasion of concerts, open mics, wine/guitar/gastronomic meetings. This evening is nothing more than a way to renew a beautiful and deep friendship between two associations which, albeit in different ways, experience music as an opportunity to form a group.

Acoustic zone means a place that resonates, like a “sound box”. The association, which today has about sixty members including musicians and enthusiasts scattered throughout Northern Italy and beyond, has as its main activity that of meeting up to play in the most diverse situations (clubs, associations, clubs, house concerts, etc.) under the banner of being together to share good music, listen to each other, stimulate exchange and collaboration between guitar enthusiasts and more. The most important event is the annual review “Chitarre per sorrere”, now in its 16th edition, which is held every June in the province of Verona and has hosted many great names in the acoustic guitar.

The artists

Paula Selva
She graduated in guitar at the “G. Nicolini” Conservatory in Piacenza with Maestro Marco Tajo and obtained a specialist degree in teaching and interpretation at the “J. Tomadini” Conservatory in Udine with Maestro Fabio Spruzzola In 2015 she approached the acoustic guitar with which she soon achieved great results: in the same year she won the second prize at the “Acoustic Franciacorta” Festival and was a finalist in the “Obiettivo Maf” Competition in Fiorano Modenese. Emergent ADGPA”, an award that he won by reappearing in the selections in 2017.

Alex Gillan
Born in Scotland but living in Italy for 30 years now, Alex has always played the guitar. In high school he loved and played pieces by John Fahey, Gordon Giltrap and Stefan Grossman as well as original pieces and arrangements. Then came the era of so-called “prog rock”, and he discovered Steve Howe, Jan Akkerman and Steve Hackett – who played both acoustic and electric.
After 20 years in London, where he regularly played jazz, fusion, funk, soul and hip-hop in various formations, he moved to Italy. Here he continued to play solo concerts (for the Emergency, at the Six Bars Jail “Fingerporking” festival) and in various duos with singers or other musicians. He has also played in various ensembles – Over the Moon! (fusion trio/quintet), Franco Ressa’s Untrio (strictly acoustic original music) and recently Speakeasy (quartet with singer playing “jazz/pop”).

GiovanniFerro
Guitarist active on the Verona scene for several decades; he has collaborated with groups, singers and songwriters of various backgrounds, exploring various musical genres. With his fingerstyle he (acoustic guitar-only) he has participated in the main national festivals and events related to this style.
In the early 2000s he set up the Zonacustica cultural association, dedicated to the world of the guitar, with which he organizes every year “Chitarre per Sognare”,

Gabriel Dusi
Guitarist who plays with the Fingerstyle style, which consists in playing the bass line, that of the rhythm guitar and the melody of the song at the same time, without the aid of a loop station. He draws on the repertoire of modern guitarists such as Tommy Emmanuel, up to the classics of the masters of this particular guitar style, such as Chet Atkins and Merle Travis, adding to this original songs composed by him, and arrangements of jazz and pop songs.

Giulio Radelli
He studied with Maurizio Angeletti, Duck Baker and Pietro Nobile. After giving life to various formations (Blues – Country – Irish music) and music and poetry shows, he concentrates on composing original songs. In 1997 he met the violinist and multi-instrumentalist Socrate Verona, with whom he began a collaboration that still lasts. He has participated several times in the most important Italian and international guitar festivals (Sarzana International Meeting, Soave, A country with six strings, the European Music Festival, Guitars to dream, Guitar International Rendez-Vous, Issoudun (FRA). In 2003 his CD Blue-Eyed Duckling has been nominated for the Tenco award as best first work.

Socrates Verona
Born in 1964, he lived between Italy and Greece, his second homeland. He therefore trained musically by attending a very varied cultural environment and as a multi-instrumentalist; he started as self-taught already from the age of 6 playing the guitar, also alternating traditional Greek instruments such as the bouzouki and Mediterranean ones such as the mandolin and all stringed instruments in general. He completed his studies in Italy graduating in violin under the guidance of his teacher Maestro Carmelo Buttà, with whom he also began studying the viola which he has been playing in various orchestras for years.

Gianmarco Astor
From the first years of his life he was accompanied and guided by an intense sensitivity and attraction for the world of sounds and music. Over the years, this led him to seek continuous contact with everything that produces “musical sound”, which fascinates and enraptures him.
He thus approaches and experiments with various instruments (guitar, piano, percussion, flutes, ethnic instruments) that attract him for their different “sound worlds”.
The guitar is among all the instrument that has most fascinated him in its various forms, styles, sounds and has “captured” him definitely giving him the opportunity to undertake with pleasure and intensity a path (even internal) that ranges from classical to jazz up to today’s acoustics.
The encounter with each of these tools/genres also meant his self-taught study and with the support of teachers.

Vladimir Leoni
“I started guitar studies at the age of 11. When I realized how important it was for me to play this instrument, I continued my guitar studies with Maestro Marco De Santi. I followed my classical studies at the G. Viotti musical institute in Vercelli and I perfected myself with Maestro Angelo Gilardino also following the international guitar courses of Trivero Caulera (VC) between 1980 and 1982. With the Waja Maja I released the first CD in 2001 entitled WajaMaja, in 2003 the album “ Vènt”, in 2007 the album “The Poet’s Dream” and in 2020 the album Casa do Mar”

Theo Ederle
Multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer (born Verona 1962). He studies at the Conservatory of Verona: Cello, Organ, Trombone shooting. He studies as a self-taught: Guitar, Bass, Flute, Sax, Drums. He teaches Bass, Guitar, Midi Synth & Computer Programming + Theory & Solfeggio + Ensemble Music. He began his professional career in 1984 and since then has tried to explore any musical form in an experimental key: from electronics (Art Erios, Teok Hamola, Blue neptune, Open Pussy, PIP), to progressive (Dott. Sottile and the Mathematical Monsters), to cross over (Hal 9000), to funky (Fritz Mc Whole, Nick Taylor).

Free admission, booking required.

For more information: www.sixbarsjail.it