Ruggero Chiesa (1 August 1933 – 14 June 1993) was a prominent Italian classical guitarist, teacher and editor.

Life and career

Born in

Camogli Camogli (; ) is a fishing village and tourist resort located on the west side of the peninsula of Portofino, on the Golfo Paradiso in the Riviera di Levante, in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, Liguria, northern Italy. its population was 5,332. C ...

, Chiesa began studying classical guitar privately with Mario Canepa, continuing his studies with Carlo Palladino, a student of Luigi Mozzani, in

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

. In 1956 and 1960 he attended the

Accademia Musicale Chigiana The Accademia Musicale Chigiana (''English'': Chigiana Musical Academy) is a music institute in Siena, Italy. It was founded by Count Guido Chigi-Saracini in 1932 as an international centre for advanced musical studies. It organises Master Class ...

courses by renowned international guitarists such as Alirio Diaz and

Emilio Pujol Emilio Pujol Vilarrubí (or ''Emili''; 7 April 1886 – 15 November 1980) was a Spanish composer, guitarist and a leading teacher of the classical guitar. Biography Emili Pujol was born in the little village of Granadella just outside Lleida, S ...

, from whom he learned the

vihuela The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...

. He subsequently (until 1992) replaced Alirio Diaz in courses of transcriptions from

tablature Tablature (or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering or the location of the played notes rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuel ...

. Having abandoned his concert career because of a hand problem, he devoted himself particularly to the teaching and study of the literature of the

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

and

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, revitalizing especially the nineteenth-century Italian guitar. From 1963 he was professor of guitar at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. His students included prominent internationally known soloists of today, such as Frédéric Zigante and Emanuele Segre. From 1965 he began an intense collaboration with the publisher

Suvini Zerboni Suvini Zerboni (ESZ) Italian music publishing house founded in 1907 in Milan, taking its name from the theater society of the same name. The ESZ catalogue included, besides operetta favourites, the best of Italian contemporary music, such compose ...

, publishing revisions of many works classical and ancient, performing accurate philological analysis and greatly expanding the repertoire available to the classical guitar. He edited more than 150 works by various composers and wrote a number of didactic works. In 1972, with Suvini Zerboni, he began the publication of the magazine ''Il Fronimo'', of which he was founder and director and whose title is taken from a treatise by

Vincenzo Galilei Vincenzo Galilei (3 April 1520 – 2 July 1591) was an Italian lutenist, composer, and music theory, music theorist. His children included the astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei and the lute virtuoso and composer Michelagnolo Galilei. Vinc ...

on the art of writing tablature for lute. (''Fronimo / dialogo di Vincentio Galilei / nobile fiorentino / sopra l’arte del bene intavolare / et rettamente sonare la musica'', 1568–1584). The magazine quickly became a reference point for guitar musicologists internationally. In 1983, he became the director of the Corsi Accademici di Chitarra, held annually at Bassano del Grappa (Vicenza). Ruggero Chiesa died in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Legacy

Since 2005 the ''Ruggero Chiesa International Competition of Classical Guitar — City of Camogli '' has been dedicated to his memory. A number of contemporary composers wrote works dedicated to Chiesa, including

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (3 April 1895 – 16 March 1968) was an Italian composer, pianist and writer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In ...

, Bruno Bettinelli,

Franco Donatoni Franco Donatoni (9 June 1927 – 17 August 2000) was an Italian composer. Biography Born in Verona, Donatoni started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local music academy. Later, he studied at the Milan Conservatory ...

, and

Aldo Clementi Aldo Clementi (25 May 1925 – 3 March 2011) was an Italian classical composer. Life Aldo Clementi was born in Catania, Italy. He studied the piano, graduating in 1946 at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome. His studies in composition began i ...

.Summerfield (2005), as above.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chiesa, Ruggero 1933 births 1993 deaths Italian classical guitarists 20th-century Italian guitarists 20th-century Italian classical musicians Accademia Musicale Chigiana alumni