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Iwas born in Milano and I am now 66 years old. Since I was a kid, I was plunged into music. I play piano and guitar and I compose songs. In the early 1980s, I was one of the founders of TECNOMUSICA (Milan, Italy), an association for the promotion and diffusion of computer music. Throughout my career, both in the private sector as well as with WHO, I have played in several bands and I have supported bands, organized concerts and national campaigns for the prevention of communicable diseases e.g. Youth and AIDS in Malawi and for other public health initiatives. Arts, music in particular, are an integral part of my life.

Why Africa?

I moved to Africa, more precisely to Rwanda, in 1986. I was then working for a private company. My passion and curiosity for the music and arts in general pushed me to find and link up with local musicians, dancers, painters etc. I played in a band made up of Rwandans, Congolese, Burundians, French, American. Loads of influences and it was quite a learning experience. Rwanda’s rhythms are very rich and go beyond the usual key signatures of 4/4 and 3/4 we are so familiar with in western music. The 6/8, 5/4, 9/8, with variations in the accents within the tempo, among others.

I have been around in Africa, in and out, for 35 years. I visited and worked in many countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Mauritius, Malawi, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cameroun, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Egypt and…I may have forgotten some.