photo courtesy Gorg (A)
Biographical notes
He started playing guitar at the age of 12. In 1986 he published his first blues book “My Acoustic Blues Guitar.”
He collaborated as a journalist for the magazine’s Guitar Club, Chitarre, Acoustic Guitar.
He is the author of CDs, books and videos based on his compositions on traditional Italian, blues, jazz and Celtic music.
In the United States, he received the GPJ Folk Awards for independent music for the Cd Italian Fingerstyle Guitar as the best album in the category ‘solo guitar.’
Concerts and guitar courses
He performs in Europe, the United States and Japan. He has been teaching and organizing fingerstyle guitar workshops for about 30 years. In Italy, in the Marche region, he opened a teaching space with Raffaella Luna, the Acoustic Guitar Workshops.
Live Performances
He performed with John Renbourn, Leo Kottke, Tim Sparks, Alex De Grassi and many others. He performs solo or duo with the singer Raffaella Luna with traditional Italian songs and original songs.
Repertoire
His repertoire has solid foundations in blues, jazz, Celtic music and Italian folk. Languages deepened with absolute competence during continuous research, with a distinctive and personal sound.
Music labels
MBG Ariola, Carisch, Bèrben, Acoustic Music Records, Acoustic Music Books, are the labels and publishers that have produced his works. Currently, he publishes with his Acoustic Guitar Workshops label.
DISCOGRAPHY
- Stranalandia
- Guitàrea
- The South Wind
- Melodies of Memories
- Running Home
- Italian Fingerstyle Guitar
- The Road to Lisdoonvarna
- Songs We Love – with Raffaella Luna
- Miles of Blues
- Back to My Best
- Canti lontani nel tempo – with Raffaella Luna
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Fingerstyle Blues Collection
- Guitàrea
- Celtic Fingerstyle Collection (The South Wind)
- Melodies of Memories
- Fingerstyle Jazz
- Italian Fingerstyle Guitar
- Stranalandia
- Easy Fingerstyle Songs
- 10 Duets for Fingerstyle Guitar with Ulli Boergershausen
- Back to My Best
Live concerts
Open Strings-Osnabrueck–D
Otor–Saragozza–ES
The Acoustic Strings Fest.– Raalte–NL
The Kirkmichael Int. Guitar Fest.UK
Acoustic Guitar Meeting –Sarzana-I
Folkest–Spilimbergo-I
Soave Guitar Festival-I
20° Festival Internazionale Chitarra–I
Chitarre dal mondo–Teatro Corte–I
Bormio Guitar International Meeting–I
Festival Villa Celimontana–Roma–I
Sentieri Acustici–Pistoia–I
Musicastrada–Pisa–I
Castello dei Doria–Dolceacqua-I
Madame Guitar–Udine-I
Acoustic Franciacorta-I
Teatro Puccini–Merano-I
Teatro Filarmonica–Macerata-I
Consolato Italiano Houston–USA
Chet Atkins A. Convention Nashville–USA
All-Star Guitar Night-Nashville–USA
All-Star Guitar Night-Nashville–USA
KVMR Celtic Festival–Ca–USA
Healdsburg Guitar Festival–Ca–USA
Honolulu, Orvis Theater–Hawaii–USA
International Guitar Tour–Japan
Guitar Festival–Singapore
International Guitar Tour–HU
Zagreb Guitar Summit–HR
All Star Guitar Night–Opatija–HR
Jurandvor–Baska–HR
Teatro Excelsior–Chiasso–CH
Guitar Festival–Linz–A
Posthof–Linz–A
International Guitar Night–D
Consolato Italia/Dortmund–D
Schondorf Guitar Festival–D
Folk Frueling Festival–Venne–D
Sala Filarmonica–Rovereto-I
Musicultura–Macerata-I
Musicultura–Macerata-I
Press reviews
Franco … once on stage gives us a simply superb concert, fresh, inspired and intense enough to make the audience skin their hands…… do not miss Franco Morone if with his magic guitar happened one day in your area: I assure you will not regret it!
Franco is an artist who brought the history of the acoustic guitar to Italy. A refined musician, an excellent arranger, an attentive connoisseur of the Italian and European folk heritage, he has written music pages on which the latest generations of guitarists have worn out their fingers.
Franco Morone confirms himself as a very talented composer and guitarist. In his case, it is the compositional idea that conveys the style like Villa Lobos or John Renbourn.
Franco is one of our favourite acoustic guitarists. He is also a great teacher and a brilliant ambassador for fingerstyle guitar.
When Franco Morone plays, you can feel a deep intensity. Mostly eyes closed, the artist is 100% inside his music. He is a master at work when the magic happens. Every note he plays is necessary. In every note, there is an Italian feeling of lightness and Mediterranean poetry garnished with precious ornaments. Franco is a wanderer between musical styles – Celtic sounds, jazz, blues and much more – which he masters entirely and perfectly.
Franco is not only an excellent and world-renowned artist; his numerous publications and workshop series prove that he is also a great teacher!
I was lucky enough to walk into the Taylor Guitars booth at the Winter NAMM Show and hear this artist for the first time. What an incredible performance! Franco plays solo acoustic guitar in a variety of styles. He has an impeccable “feel” and the ability to play lush chords and melody at a time.
Franco Morone is, without a doubt, an acoustic guitar genius and for sure one of our favourite musicians. His playing is always a miracle of solid grooves, great melodies and a tone to die. His repertoire is versatile, full of interest and delightful surprises.
Franco gently opened his heart, flipping through the most beautiful pages of a musical diary unparalleled for the stories and secrets it contains.
As the rather convincing result proves, if there was any need, Franco Morone is one of the great fingerstyle guitarists of the moment. In short, an excellent album, elegant, warm, colourful to be enjoyed without moderation.
Franco Morone is one of the greatest guitarists of the so-called fingerstyle, a true master with his instrument.
Morone has one of the most identifiable sounds of anyone playing fingerstyle guitar today.
The round, warm note reveals the unmistakable signature of the pleasant southern lands: harmonic richness and great groove fill all the tracks. Rarely has the blues communicated as much joy to listeners as this recording.
“Back To My Best” is the dream of a best album: a vivid vortex of notes of incomparable bright tenderness and enchanting power, a rush of Mediterranean morning and Celtic evening breezes whose poetic beauty undoubtedly reaches even those listeners who don’t even suspect what prodigious technical execution it takes to truly make each of the tens of thousands of notes blossom in such impeccably relaxed time.
Franco Morone captures the listener in a wide variety of styles and excels at creating fantastic, rich moods in his modern approach to fingerstyle guitar.
“Without taking anything away from your past works, which as you know I appreciated, I believe that “Italian Fingerstyle Guitar” is your most successful and stimulating project, obviously also thanks to the chosen repertoire that shows an uncommon sensitivity and musical intelligence. I have devoured this CD in the sense that I have listened to it over and over again – something that happens to me very rarely – and at every opportunity, I have managed to find new suggestions and impressions. In addition to having streamed on many tracks of “Italian Fingerstyle Guitar,” I also chose it as “Album of the Week”.
