Angelo Gilardino, guitarist and composer, was born in Vercelli (Italy) in 1941, where he later studied guitar, violoncello and composition. His concert career, which lasted from 1958 to 1981, had a great influence on the development of the guitar as an instrument in the “limelight” in the twentieth century. Indeed, he gave premiere performances of hundreds of new compositions dedicated to him by composers from all over the world.

Since 1982 he has published an extensive collection of his own compositions: Studi di virtuosità e di trascendenza, which John W. Duarte hailed as “milestones in the new repertoire of the classical guitar”, sonatas, variations, various pieces such as Colloquio con Andrés Segovia, Sonatine des fleurs et des oiseaux, Tríptico de las visiones, Catskill Pond, La casa del faro, Sonata Mediterranea, Sonata del Guadalquivir, etc., four concertos for solo guitar and guitar groups (Concerto d’estate, Concierto de Córdoba, premiered at the Córdoba Festival in 1994, Poema d’inverno, Concerto d’autunno), and seven concertos with chamber orchestra: a concerto for guitar (Leçons de Ténèbres, 1996), a concerto for mandolin and guitar (Fiori di novembre, 1997), Concerto Italiano for four guitars (1998), a concerto for flute and guitar (La casa delle ombre, 1999), Liederkonzert for two guitars (2000), a concerto for guitar and accordion (En las tierras altas, 2001), a concerto for violoncello and guitar (Star of the Morning, 2004). The Italian Guitar Congress awarded him the prize “Golden Guitar” three times (1997, 1998, 2000), respectively for his compositions, his teaching and his musicological research.