Here the video #2/6 of the masterclass by Marco Ramelli and Petra Poláckovà: Nicholas Rocca. This is the moment of the father of modern guitar: Antonio de Torres singing the sweet Catalan folk-song El testament d’Amèlia arranged by Miguel Llobet.
Nicholas Rocca was born in Lecco in 1996. He began studying guitar at the age of 11 and in 2009 he was admitted to ISSM “Gaetano Donizetti” in Bergamo, where in July 2017 he obtained a bachelor degree with highest marks and honors in the class of M° Luigi Attademo. He’s been the winner for two consecutive years (2016 and 2017) of the “Stefano Zappa” scholarship offered by “Corde d’Autunno” Festival in Milan with M° Marco Ramelli, which allowed him to perform at the Sforza Castle in Milan for “Le Mani Sapienti”. He has also performed as a soloist at “Casa Natale di G. Donizetti”, “Salone Riccardi” in Donizetti Theatre and “Sala Locatelli” for festivals in Bergamo and at “Sala Mabellini” in Pistoia; together with the Ensemble of Guitars of the Donizetti Institute he also performed at “Giovanni Arvedi” Auditorium in Cremona and at “Accademia Carrara” in Bergamo. From 2017 he collaborates with actor and pianist Giorgio Pesenti for the staging of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s work Platero y Yo, based on the homonymous work by spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez. They performed together in February 2018 at “Teatro Asteria” in Milan for “Corde d’Autunno” Festival and in April of the same year at “Sala delle Vedute” in “Palazzo dei Pio” in Carpi for the cultural association “Risonanze”; they also performed during a Lectio Magistralis on the figure of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco held by M° Angelo Gilardino together with the musicologist Livio Aragona at the historic “Sala Greppi” in Bergamo. He also followed masterclasses held by Andrea Dieci, Stefano Grondona, Oscar Ghiglia and Lorenzo Micheli. He usually plays a Torres copy guitar made in 2017 by guitar maker Gabriele Lodi.