BIO
Francesco Di Cristofaro start piano and accordeon studies in his early years with M°Alfonso Aversano. He obtained a diploma in Piano and Music Performance at ABRSM (Associated board of Royal school of music). During the same period, he obtained a degree in“Tradizioni musicali extraeuropee ad indirizzo Indologico” (Indian Music) at Conservatorio “A.Pedrollo” in Vicenza, and "Produzione Musicale e discografica" at Conservatorio "N.Sala" in Benevento. He is currently attending the master's degree course in "Musicology and musical heritage" at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
The interest in traditional music led him to deepen various languages and instruments: he studied bansuri (Indian Flute) with M°Lorenzo Squillari and attending workshops in India and Italy with Ustad Mujtaba Hussain and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia; Iberian bagpipes with Pablo Carpintero and Alberto Jambrina; modal music at the "Labyrinth" courses with Ross Daly; armenian music and duduk with Gevorg Dabagyhan at the "Fondazione Cini" in Venice.
In 2009 he was one of the founders of the Brigan project, a collective of musicians who have been working for years on the revival of some traditional repertoires of the Mediterranean, and in particular those of the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. With Brigan he has 4 albums, numerous tours in Spain and Portugal and other important participations in festivals in China, Israel, Germany, Croatia, England, Romania and Slovenia; the victory in 2013 of "Universo Folk", an important traditional music competition held in Oviedo in Spain and the victory in 2019 of the prestigious "Pentafinum Jacobeo" award released in Santiago de Compostela for the album "Rua San Giacomo" selected as the best project dedicated to the Camino de Santiago.
The result of intense research, in 2019 he released a solo piano album dedicated to the Armenian composer and ethnomusicologist Vardapet Komitas with the Italian-Japanese label DaVinci Classics. In 2021 he collaborated with the Armenian director Hrachya Sargsyan on the music of the experimental medium-length film “Exodus in three parts”, dedicated to the Armenian diaspora.
At the moment he is working as poli-instrumentist in different ‘ensembles’ such as Peppe Barra, Brigan, degoya, Massimo Ferrante and Caterina Pontrandolfo with whom he has recorded different works and has played different live shows all over the world, such as China, India, Spain, Israel, Germany, France, Portugal, England, Switzerland, Denmark, Romania, Croatia and Slovenia.
He also collaborated with Nino d'Angelo, Lino Cannavacciuolo, Nour Eddine Fatty , Xulio Lorenzo, 'E Zezi, Evi Evan, Moni Ovadia, Juri Camisasca, Marzouk Mejri, Mbarka BenTaleb, Ensemble Calixtinus, La Mescla, Roberto Giordi, Barbara Buonaiuto, Gustavoce, Giuliano Gabriele, Andrea Franchi, Alarc'h.
In 2019 he founded the Liburia Records label.
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He has played in many events including:
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Punjubi University Patiala - India
Asia World Music Festival - China
Théâtre national algérien - Algeria
Rotary Club Chandigar - India
Jacob's Ladder Festival - Israel
Festival Intercéltico de Sendim - Portugal
Neukolln Folk festival -Berlin, Germany
Teatro Campoamor, Oviedo - Spain
University Church of St Mary, Oxford
Teatro El Albeitar, Leon - Spain
Théâtre Régional d'Oran - Algeria
Mera World Music Festival, Cluj - Romania
Teatro Afundacion, Vigo - Spain
Sala Galileo Galilei, Madrid - Spain
Jamboree Music Club, London, UK
St GallusFestival - Swizerland
Festival TradinEtno, Pazin - Croatia
Festival Biradosnamorados, Braga - Portugal
Festival Aspenizas Folk - Spain
San Mateo Festival, Oviedo - Spain
Festival Celtic Transylvania - Romania
LeDelirium - Avignon, France
Club de la prensa asturiana, Oviedo - Spain
Forum universale delle culture (Napoli)
Festival delle Tradizioni (Vicenza)
Festival Ethnos (Napoli)
Festival dell'arpa Viggianese
Festival Pifferi, muse e zampogne (Arezzo)
Festival Paleariza
Festival della Zampogna di Scapoli
Festival Mercantia
Festival la Ghironda (Ostuni)
Festival Borgosonoro (Longiano)
Festival di Voci e di Suoni (Caprarola)
Festival Mediterraneo Insieme (Nardò)
Festival JoggiAvant Folk
Festival del Cedro
Festival Coreutica (San Vito de Normanni)
Festival Ernica Etnica (Veroli)
Breental Celtic Festival
Teatro del Sale (Firenze)
Teatro San Genesio (Roma)
Teatro Aperto (Verona)
TeatroCivico (Caserta)
Teatro Bolivar (Napoli)
Teatro Ghirelli (Salerno)
Teatro Tor BellaMonaca (Roma)
Teatro del Lido di Ostia
Teatro Comunale di Vicenza
Teatro Monteverdi di Cremona
Napoli Teatro Festival
Auditorium Castel Sant'elmo (Napoli)
Fairylands Celtic Festival (Roma)
Premio Andrea Parodi (Cagliari)
Premio Bianca d'Aponte
Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II"
Pastorizia in Festival
Francigena Folk Festival
Circolo Gianni Bosio (Roma)
Istituto De Martino (Sesto Fiorentino)
Archivi della Resistenza, Fosdinovo
Fortezza di Castrocaro
Folk Club Buttrio - Udine
Oh!Festivà - Ravenna