Active as a performer, musicologist, recording artist and teacher, Italian classical guitarist
Adriano Sebastiani is recognised as one of the most important Italian and International experts
of guitar discography, history, literature and chamber music. He studied the Art of the Guitar in
Italy: in Florence with Alvaro Company (pupil of Andrés Segovia) and in Rome with Bruno
Battisti D’Amario, obtaining his Master Degree in Guitar Performance at the prestigious
Conservatory of Music San Pietro a Majella, Naples, the oldest music Academy in Italy.
At the same time he completed his cultural education, obtaining his scientific high school Diploma and then a second Master Degree in Agricultural Science at the University of Florence. Recently he obtained his third Master Degree in Musical Pedagogy at the Conservatory of Music “Luigi Cherubini” in Florence.
He later attended Guitar Masterclasses held by acclaimed artists of the lute and guitar world like Leo Brouwer, Sérgio and Odair Assad, José Maria Gallardo Del Rey, Dušan Bogdanovic, Ralph Towner, Oscar Roberto Casares and Hopkinson Smith.
As part of a guitar duo he has won four first prizes in National and International Competitions. Sebastiani has performed as a soloist and in chamber ensembles and with orchestras in Italy, Europe, Russia and the USA, and has collaborated with singers, violinists, string trios and quartets including Xin Wang, Diana Kierenko, Patrizia Cigna, Antonia Brown, Silvia Vajente, Silvia Martinelli, Siphiwe McKenzie, Stephen Harland, Leonardo De Lisi (Singers), Ingolf Turban, Dora Bratchkova, Bin Huang, Franco Mezzena, Fedor Kabelskii, Marco Fornaciari (Violinists), Antonello Farulli (Violist), Dimitri Illarionov (Guitarist) and the Boccherini Ensemble.
His wide-ranging and varied repertoire includes original music for guitar of different periods
and styles, the unique compositions of Ralph Towner, works for guitar and orchestra, lute music and many other chamber music works.
Since 1975 Sebastiani has devoted himself to the study and collection of rare bibliographic and musical sources concerning the history of, and repertoire for, the guitar. As a musicologist has collaborated and collaborates with the most important international guitar magazines, including Guitar Review (New York), Il Fronimo and Seicorde (Milan), Soundboard (California) and Guitart (Naples), rediscovering and publishing several important works for and with guitar for the following publishers: Suvini Zerboni of Milan, Berben of Ancona (Italy), Philomele of Geneva, and Tuscany Publications of Tampa (U.S.A.). He has also edited the catalogue of Paganini’s compositions for the book Nicolò Paganini, Il Cavaliere Filarmonico by Edward D.R. Neill. His most recent publication are the co-authored book Andrés Segovia e il suo repertorio, published by Grafos of Genoa, The Romantic Lied with Guitar published by Guitart Edition and Ralph Towner and the Guitar, that is going to be published. In these last years he is collaborating with the extraordinary Italian magazine Arbiter too, writing two essays about Segovia and Paganini.
His recordings include an acclaimed set of twenty-eight discs. Sebastiani is the first guitarist in the world to have recorded the complete works for Violin, Viola, Mandolin and Guitar, the complete Trios for Strings and Guitar, the Six Cantabili and Waltz and the Sonata with Variations for Strings Trio and Guitar by Paganini, a collection of original songs for Voice and Guitar by Schubert, the complete works for Voice and Guitar by Giuliani, and a selection of songs for Voice and guitar by Carulli.
Among his albums are solo guitar music by Niccolò Paganini, Dušan Bogdanovic, Ralph Towner, Stefano Casarini and Bruno Battisti D’Amario.
Towner and Bogdanovic, as well as composers Oliviero Lacagnina, Stefano Casarini, John Hall, Joan Yakkey, Anthony Sidney, Riccardo Riccardi and Bruno Battisti D’Amario have all dedicated new works to him.
Recently he signed a contract with Brilliant Classics to valorize the repertoire for Voice and Guitar: he has released five recordings rispectively devoted to the complete Songs for Voice and Guitar of Louis Spohr (94274), the Italian Ariettas by Gioachino Rossini (94628), the Songs by John Dowland (94480), the complete Songs by Carl Maria von Weber (95323); and recently three albums for Solo Guitar: the 24 Etudes by Stefano Casarini (95633), the Works for Solo Guitar by Ralph Towner (95823) and the Complete Works for Solo Guitar by Bruno Battisti D’Amario (96951). Sebastiani plays guitars by the Italian luthier Luciano Maggi and American luthier Alan Stewart Wilcox.
He has taught at the ‘Luigi Boccherini’ Institute in Lucca, in the ‘Luigi Cherubini’ Conservatory in Florence and in the Pre-College Government Schools of Arezzo, Grosseto and Lucca.