Federico Casagrande

For several years, the Montreux Jazz Artist Foundation has collaborated with the New Echo System artistic residency program in Venice. Each year, several duos consisting of a Swiss artist and an Italian artist meet and work together for a week to create an original repertoire.

This year, the MJAF invited Federico Casagrande, winner of the 2007 Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition, to participate in this residency. For this artistic adventure, he chose to collaborate with dancer and choreographer Jasmin Morand.

Following this week of creation in Venice, they will present the result of their joint work, born from the encounter between music and movement.

Paris based jazz guitarist Federico Casagrande is considered one of the most influential European guitar player of the last years. He started in early age the study of classical music in Italy. In 2003 he moved on a scholarship to Boston, U.s.a., where he attended the Berklee College of Music and graduated summa cum laude in 2006.

In 2007 he won the first prize at the Gibson Montreux Jazz Festival Guitar Competition with George Benson president of the jury. He released 18 records as leader or co-leader. His production goes from acoustic solo to electric trios and quartets. Among others, notable collaborations on record are a duo with piano master Enrico Pieranunzi, a trio with Fulvio Sigurta and Steve Swallow and a duo with Francesco Bearzatti with whom he has been touring regularly for the past then years.

Since 2018 he’s a member of accordion virtuoso Vincent Peirani’s Jokers, a trio who has been touring extensively in Europe and U.S. He has been recently nominated twice as finalist for European Musician of the Year by Academie du Jazz in France and among the best international guitar players by the press. He performed in Italy, U.S.A., Canada, Australia, Denmark, Austria, Estland, Latvia, Portugal, Switzerland, France, U.K., China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Belgium, Ukraina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Croatia, Azerbaijan.