Giacomo Copiello
Giacomo Copiello

→ Italian version

“A large repertoire and a unique musical personality.”
—­­ David Russell, Alicante

“I was enchanted by the beauty of what he was able to create. A dialogue between the instrument and his hands that cannot go unnoticed. An exceptionally rich interpretation. From the very first notes, it endears the listener in the most sincere admiration. A very innovative technique with dynamic and agogic out of the ordinary.”
—­­ Oscar Ghiglia, Siena


Giacomo Copiello is an Italian guitarist and artistic researcher whose work moves between performance, transcription, and instrumental exploration. His artistic path focuses on the Brahms Guitar, an eight-string instrument explored through collaborations, arrangements, and new artistic projects. He recently completed a doctorate in Music & Media at the University of Surrey under the supervision of composer Stephen Goss, with research dedicated to the artistic identity and future of this instrument, that opens new expressive possibilities for the classical guitar.

He has performed in important concert halls and festivals across Europe, including Berlin, Cambridge, Basel, Barcelona, Oslo, and Munich, and has developed artistic and educational collaborations in Brazil through concerts, masterclasses, and long-term artistic exchanges. Since 2015, his recordings released by Stradivarius have been widely appreciated by critics and listeners, culminating in the album Lieder (2023), a personal journey through Schubert and Mendelssohn inspired by the expressive world of the human voice.

He is also the founder and artistic director of Trascrizioni Festival at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, a project dedicated to bringing people closer to classical music through transcription, dialogue between artistic languages, and new listening contexts.

He enjoys demanding rides on his bicycle and chasing small moments of epiphany, convinced that a certain amount of struggle, in art as in life, often leads to the most profound discoveries.

“He is by any reckoning a major guitaristic talent and has everything one could possibly wish for — an individual, creative mind; an in-born technical facility; a natural curiosity to discover new, unexplored musical territory; an overflowing, expressive imagination — to become a central figure in the international guitar scene and beyond.”­
—­­ Paul Galbraith, Cambridge

“He is undoubtedly among the very best students I have encountered in forty years of teaching, In terms of guitar technique, Giacomo is both very solid and original. More generally speaking, he is a very creative musician, one who goes beyond whatever he is imparted in terms of academic teaching.”­
—­­ Stefano Grondona, Vicenza

Press kit download (bio + pictures)

Giacomo Copiello

Background

Giacomo graduated with top marks, honors, and special mention at the Conservatoire Pedrollo in Vicenza – Italy, where he studied guitar with Stefano Grondona, as well as harmony and composition with Michele Brugnaro. He received further training at the High-Level Proficiency Course directed by Laura Mondiello in Brescia, receiving different scholarships for his artistic merit, and since 2011 has participated in the International Masterclass for Guitar in Ponte in Valtellina where he was awarded the scholarships from Comunità Montana di Sondrio (2011, 2012) and the Luca Salvadori Scholarship (2013). He has also attended several masterclasses including those of maestro Giuseppe Carrer, Oscar Ghiglia, and Carles Trepat.

Giacomo Copiello was one of fourteen international guitarists chosen for the 2015 III Master en Interpretación de Guitarra Clásica at the University of Alicante in Alicante, Spain. He studied with David Russell, Manuel Barrueco, Pepe Romero, Ignacio Rodes, Roberto Aussel and others. Courses included transcription techniques for guitar music led by Fabio Zanon, the repertoire for the vihuela and baroque guitar with Paul O’Dette and Nigel North, and conducting and artist management with José de Eusebio.

In 2015 Copiello recorded the Suite BWV 995 as his contribution to a CD of J.S. Bach’s lute repertoire produced by the Conservatoire of Vicenza. The album, “Bach: The 4 Suites for Lute” (STR 37055), was then published by Stradivarius in 2016. It has received positive accolades including a five-star review from “Seicorde”.

The connection with Paul Galbraith started from a Masterclass in Vicenza in 2014, strengthened with the years, and during Spring 2016 the professor handed his second instrument, the 1995 8-string Brahms Guitar built by David Rubio to Giacomo Copiello. Since then he started playing and transcribing new pieces for this instrument, studying from 2017 to 2019 with Galbraith at the School of Excellence course at the Musik-Akademie in Basel.

In 2016 he enrolled in the two-year Postgraduate course in Guitar with Maestro Grondona at the Vicenza Conservatoire. He successfully finished in 2018, with top marks, honors, and special mention, with a final thesis titled “Without Words” containing transcriptions of Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words" for six-string guitar duo and Schubert's lieder for solo 8-string guitar.

This program, together with the arrangement for guitar duo of the second movement of the string quartet "The Death and the Maiden" by F. Schubert, is part of the new CD titled “Lieder” published by Stradivarius in 2023.

Giacomo has also been interested in chamber music for classical guitar. Together with Michele Tedesco, he founded the Duo Copiello-Tedesco (formerly named Wanderer Guitar Duo), a guitar duo focused on the interpretation of 19th-century Romantic music through both transcriptions and original music for classical guitar. The duo made its recording debut in 2017 with “Der Wanderer”, an album published by Stradivarius (STR 37069) that includes the music of J. K. Mertz, F. Schubert, J. Brahms, and C. Franck. It has since received positive feedback from critics including “Cdclassico” (with five stars), “Giornale di Vicenza”, “Musica!”, “Gothik Network”, and “Neuguitar”.

Copiello has been performing numerous concerts as a soloist and in chamber ensembles in his native Italy and abroad: Berlin, Cambridge, Basel, Alicante, Monaco, Barcellona, and Oslo are some of the cities where he successfully played live. Giacomo has also shown a strong interest in historical instruments. He has played numerous guitars from the XIX and XX centuries, like an 1859 A. de Torres (FE 09) at the Museu de la Música, Barcellona; a 1917 Santos Hernandez with which he recorded the cd “Der Wanderer”, a 1915 Enrique Garcia guitar performing a concert at Casa Luthier (Barcellona – Spain) and playing historical romantic guitars too. He is currently playing an Argentinian guitar by José Velasco from 1930 and his 1995 8-string ‘Brahms Guitar’ by David Rubio.

The 8-string Brahms Guitar is the focus of the research doctorate that Copiello finishes in 2026 at Surrey University in Guildford (U.K.) under the guidance of Stephen Goss. His investigation aims to expand the repertoire and increase the interest in this particular instrument, arranging new music for it and collaborating with contemporary composers.

In recent years, Giacomo has been organizing new cultural initiatives that feature him as a performer or artistic director. Since 2024, he has been organizing, with Accademia Olimpica, “Trascrizioni Festival,” a concert series that invites Italian and international musicians to Vicenza, promoting classical music from new perspectives through original arrangements.

 

→ Italian version

“A large repertoire and a unique musical personality.”
—­­ David Russell, Alicante

“I was enchanted by the beauty of what he was able to create. A dialogue between the instrument and his hands that cannot go unnoticed. An exceptionally rich interpretation. From the very first notes, it endears the listener in the most sincere admiration. A very innovative technique with dynamic and agogic out of the ordinary.”
—­­ Oscar Ghiglia, Siena


Giacomo Copiello is an Italian guitarist and artistic researcher whose work moves between performance, transcription, and instrumental exploration. His artistic path focuses on the Brahms Guitar, an eight-string instrument explored through collaborations, arrangements, and new artistic projects. He recently completed a doctorate in Music & Media at the University of Surrey under the supervision of composer Stephen Goss, with research dedicated to the artistic identity and future of this instrument, that opens new expressive possibilities for the classical guitar.

He has performed in important concert halls and festivals across Europe, including Berlin, Cambridge, Basel, Barcelona, Oslo, and Munich, and has developed artistic and educational collaborations in Brazil through concerts, masterclasses, and long-term artistic exchanges. Since 2015, his recordings released by Stradivarius have been widely appreciated by critics and listeners, culminating in the album Lieder (2023), a personal journey through Schubert and Mendelssohn inspired by the expressive world of the human voice.

He is also the founder and artistic director of Trascrizioni Festival at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, a project dedicated to bringing people closer to classical music through transcription, dialogue between artistic languages, and new listening contexts.

He enjoys demanding rides on his bicycle and chasing small moments of epiphany, convinced that a certain amount of struggle, in art as in life, often leads to the most profound discoveries.

“He is by any reckoning a major guitaristic talent and has everything one could possibly wish for — an individual, creative mind; an in-born technical facility; a natural curiosity to discover new, unexplored musical territory; an overflowing, expressive imagination — to become a central figure in the international guitar scene and beyond.”­
—­­ Paul Galbraith, Cambridge

“He is undoubtedly among the very best students I have encountered in forty years of teaching, In terms of guitar technique, Giacomo is both very solid and original. More generally speaking, he is a very creative musician, one who goes beyond whatever he is imparted in terms of academic teaching.”­
—­­ Stefano Grondona, Vicenza

Giacomo Copiello

Background

Giacomo graduated with top marks, honors, and special mention at the Conservatoire Pedrollo in Vicenza – Italy, where he studied guitar with Stefano Grondona, as well as harmony and composition with Michele Brugnaro. He received further training at the High-Level Proficiency Course directed by Laura Mondiello in Brescia, receiving different scholarships for his artistic merit, and since 2011 has participated in the International Masterclass for Guitar in Ponte in Valtellina where he was awarded the scholarships from Comunità Montana di Sondrio (2011, 2012) and the Luca Salvadori Scholarship (2013). He has also attended several masterclasses including those of maestro Giuseppe Carrer, Oscar Ghiglia, and Carles Trepat.

Giacomo Copiello was one of fourteen international guitarists chosen for the 2015 III Master en Interpretación de Guitarra Clásica at the University of Alicante in Alicante, Spain. He studied with David Russell, Manuel Barrueco, Pepe Romero, Ignacio Rodes, Roberto Aussel and others. Courses included transcription techniques for guitar music led by Fabio Zanon, the repertoire for the vihuela and baroque guitar with Paul O’Dette and Nigel North, and conducting and artist management with José de Eusebio.

In 2015 Copiello recorded the Suite BWV 995 as his contribution to a CD of J.S. Bach’s lute repertoire produced by the Conservatoire of Vicenza. The album, “Bach: The 4 Suites for Lute” (STR 37055), was then published by Stradivarius in 2016. It has received positive accolades including a five-star review from “Seicorde”.

The connection with Paul Galbraith started from a Masterclass in Vicenza in 2014, strengthened with the years, and during Spring 2016 the professor handed his second instrument, the 1995 8-string Brahms Guitar built by David Rubio to Giacomo Copiello. Since then he started playing and transcribing new pieces for this instrument, studying from 2017 to 2019 with Galbraith at the School of Excellence course at the Musik-Akademie in Basel.

In 2016 he enrolled in the two-year Postgraduate course in Guitar with Maestro Grondona at the Vicenza Conservatoire. He successfully finished in 2018, with top marks, honors, and special mention, with a final thesis titled “Without Words” containing transcriptions of Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words" for six-string guitar duo and Schubert's lieder for solo 8-string guitar.

This program, together with the arrangement for guitar duo of the second movement of the string quartet "The Death and the Maiden" by F. Schubert, is part of the new CD titled “Lieder” published by Stradivarius in 2023.

Giacomo has also been interested in chamber music for classical guitar. Together with Michele Tedesco, he founded the Duo Copiello-Tedesco (formerly named Wanderer Guitar Duo), a guitar duo focused on the interpretation of 19th-century Romantic music through both transcriptions and original music for classical guitar. The duo made its recording debut in 2017 with “Der Wanderer”, an album published by Stradivarius (STR 37069) that includes the music of J. K. Mertz, F. Schubert, J. Brahms, and C. Franck. It has since received positive feedback from critics including “Cdclassico” (with five stars), “Giornale di Vicenza”, “Musica!”, “Gothik Network”, and “Neuguitar”.

Copiello has been performing numerous concerts as a soloist and in chamber ensembles in his native Italy and abroad: Berlin, Cambridge, Basel, Alicante, Monaco, Barcellona, and Oslo are some of the cities where he successfully played live. Giacomo has also shown a strong interest in historical instruments. He has played numerous guitars from the XIX and XX centuries, like an 1859 A. de Torres (FE 09) at the Museu de la Música, Barcellona; a 1917 Santos Hernandez with which he recorded the cd “Der Wanderer”, a 1915 Enrique Garcia guitar performing a concert at Casa Luthier (Barcellona – Spain) and playing historical romantic guitars too. He is currently playing an Argentinian guitar by José Velasco from 1930 and his 1995 8-string ‘Brahms Guitar’ by David Rubio.

The 8-string Brahms Guitar is the focus of the research doctorate that Copiello finishes in 2026 at Surrey University in Guildford (U.K.) under the guidance of Stephen Goss. His investigation aims to expand the repertoire and increase the interest in this particular instrument, arranging new music for it and collaborating with contemporary composers.

In recent years, Giacomo has been organizing new cultural initiatives that feature him as a performer or artistic director. Since 2024, he has been organizing, with Accademia Olimpica, “Trascrizioni Festival,” a concert series that invites Italian and international musicians to Vicenza, promoting classical music from new perspectives through original arrangements.