Andrea De Vitis (b. 1985 in Rome) has won prizes at major competitions and has performed in prestigious concert halls around the world. He is considered one of today’s most gifted guitar teachers and motivators. He has held a Professorship at the Mozarteum University Salzburg since 2023.
“Andrea De Vitis is one of those interpreters who win over the audience with the high-definition sharpness of his playing, the extraordinary control of dynamics and agogic, and the clarity with which he asserts his thought, whilst also translating the intentions of the composer” (Il Fronimo).
“His choices neither overwhelm the musical intention nor are they cliched; instead, they both enhance and clarify the music, defining structure and adding charisma” (American Record Guide)
“His sound is not limited to the categories of ‘lovely’ and ‘pleasant’ but constantly strives to trace forms that are drawn with extreme clarity, creating a small construction in which every acoustic object has its own place and a precise function in motion” (Angelo Gilardino).
Andrea De Vitis studied with Leonardo De Angelis, Paolo Pegoraro, Frédéric Zigante, Oscar Ghiglia, Carlo Marchione, Marco Cerroni.
He has performed as a soloist at major festivals and with leading orchestras in concert halls around the world, including the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Grand Theatre in Shanghai, Krakow Academy of Music, The Sheen Theatre in New York, Royal Academy in Copenhagen, Omni Foundation in San Francisco and Saint Petersburg State Academic Capella.
De Vitis is considered one of the most talented guitar teachers and motivators active today: he is in high demand to lead masterclasses in prestigious academies (Maastricht Conservatorium, California State University, Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, Conservatoire de Lyon) and hold lectures on classical guitar repertoire (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Bucharest Academy of Music). He has previously taught in a number of Italian Conservatoires, and was appointed Professor of Guitar at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg in autumn 2023.
He is an active recording artist, with his extensive discography including albums for Naxos Records: one dedicated to Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s works for guitar, and the double CD “Alexandre Tansman complete works for guitar”, which features the world premiere of newly discovered pieces and urtext versions of his other published compositions.
His recording of Tansman’s complete works earned him the “Golden Guitar prize for the best CD” from the International Guitar Convention in Milan, and a number of tracks from the album are included in the film “Impetus” by Benjamin Knoebl. He has also recorded for Vatican Radio, Slovenian National Radio, Radio Zacatecas (Mexico) and Dotguitar. Highly acclaimed by international critics, his albums and videos have already become reference recordings.
De Vitis has won more than 40 prizes at international competitions, including first prizes at Guitar Masters Wroclaw, Forum Gitarre Wien, Iserlohn, Almerìa, Budapest, Gargnano, Gorizia; he also received three “Golden Guitar Awards” at the International Guitar Convention in Milan and a Medal of Honour from the Senate of the Italian Republic.
An advocate of new repertoire for the guitar, De Vitis has performed the world premiere of numerous pieces dedicated to him, and regularly cooperates with composers such as Inés Badalo, Giorgio Colombo Taccani, Fernando Maglia, Francesco Telli, Angelo Gilardino, Steve Goss, Marco Ramelli, Marco De Biasi, Giacomo Susani, Nicola Jappelli. He also premiered the recently rediscovered “Tre danze in modo polonico” by Alexandre Tansman.
He is also very active as a music publisher: his deep interest in the transcription process has led to the publication of his versions of pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach and Enrique Granados. He also collaborated with Italian guitarist and musicologist Frédéric Zigante to produce the volumes dedicated to Alexandre Tansman’s music (Suites and Hommages). His editions and transcriptions are published by Hal Leonard, Productions d’Oz, Durand, and Curci.
In addition to his concert appearances and teaching activities, he acts as a juror at highly regarded competitions in Europe, including Forum Gitarre Wien, Budapest International Competition and Kutna Hora International Competition.
Andrea De Vitis is D’Addario artist and plays on guitars by Walter Verreydt and Hermann Hauser.