Features and Reviews
Guest Performer Giovanni De Chiaro Bio
The American classical guitarist Giovanni De Chiaro made his New York debut in 1976 in a Carnegie Hall Recital Hall performance, which brought a rave notice from the New York Times and launched a career of growing distinction. He has concertized throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe and has performed for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in Rome. He was invited to perform for President Clinton at a special Christmas function at the White House. Mr. De Chiaro was a featured performer at the "Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival" in Sedalia, Missouri, and at the "Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival" in Boulder, Colorado.
He records for Centaur Records of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Among his recordings are two discs which feature his own arrangements of traditional Christmas Carols and another comprised of his arrangements of popular Broadway Classics and a collection of wedding favorites for solo guitar. His most recent release features his guitar transcriptions of the complete works of Scott Joplin. This four-volume set includes some fifty-two rags, waltzes, and marches.
In 1989 Mr. De Chiaro received a commission from NASA to compose an original classical guitar composition for the Shuttle Space Program. The editors of the prestigious national journal Musical America named Giovanni De Chiaro as one of the magazine's "Young Artists of the Year" in 1982. He is a contributing editor for guitar magazines published in both the United States and England.
Mr. De Chiaro has also recorded two nationally televised special programs for the PBS network. Both of these programs have received Gold Awards and top honors at the International Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio; The Houston International Film Festival in Houston, Texas; and the International Film and Television Festival of New York. His many recordings can be heard throughout the United States on National Public Radio. His "Scott Joplin" collection is a regular feature on National Public Radio's syndicated program "Performance Today."
Giovanni De Chiaro is a member of the music faculty with the University of Southern Mississippi. Before going to Hattiesburg, he taught at the College of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station, New Jersey, while pursuing his own graduate studies at New York University. In addition to his teaching and performing schedule, Mr. De Chiaro arranges and transcribes for the guitar. He has published a five-volume set of teaching materials and numerous transcriptions with the Willis Music Company, Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio. Mel Bay Publications of Pacific, Missouri has released his transcriptions of several Spanish Classics in an anthology entitled "Treasures of the Spanish Guitar" along with another anthology entitled "Wedding Favorites for Classical Guitar," which features his arrangements of traditional wedding music. More recently, Mr. De Chiaro has published his guitar transcriptions of the complete works of Scott Joplin, the only such collection available to date, with Mel Bay Publications.
