www.vinceabbracciante.com
Born in Ostuni, Italy, on 21st February 1983. At the age of eight-years-old he studied music with his father Franco and A. Sanese. He studied and/or attendend masterclasses with Franco D’Andrea, Bruno Tommaso, Richard Galliano, Joelle Leandre, Steve Potts, Roberto Gatto, Dado Moroni, and he graduated in jazz music from the Conservatory “Nino Rota” in Monopoli.
In October 2000, he won the 25th International Prize and Award in Castelfidardo and in 2003 he won the 53rd World Trophy. Since 2000, he has been the Artist of the Borsini Accordion factory in Castelfidardo.
In 2011, he was awarded with the prestigious VOCE D’ORO (GOLD REED) by the International Accordion Festival in Castelfidardo, whose previous recipients include: Astor Piazzolla, Gorni Kramer, Richard Galliano, Antonello Salis, Art Van Damme, Gil Goldstein, and Vinicio Capossela.
He wrote the soundtrack for the movie, “Le Mamme di San Vito” directed by Gianni Torres. The film won the prize Globo Tricolore 2011 – Brazil/Cinema.
Vincenzo has performed and toured in various parts of the world including: Germany, Brazil, the United States, China, India, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, England, Austria, South Africa, Denmark, Holland and Canada. His performances have reached a variety of festivals and prestigious jazz clubs throughout the world including: Virada Cultural (San Paolo), Melbourne Jazz Festival (Melbourne), Queen’s Birthday Jazz & Blues Festival (Wellington), Java Jazz Festival (Jakarta), Esplanade Hall (Singapore), Montreal Jazz Festival, Rochester Jazz Festival, TerniJazzFest, Bari in Jazz, FIF (Castelfidardo), National Arts Festival (Grahamstown), and the Hong Kong Jazz Festival (Hong Kong). Some of the great musicians that Vincenzo has worked with include: Juini Booth, John Medeski, Marc Ribot, Marvin Bugalu Smith, Stacy Dillard, Flavio Boltro, Carlo Actis Dato, Bruno Tommaso, The Bumps (Davide Penta & Antonio Di Lorenzo), Giuseppe Delre, Roberto Ottaviano, Luca Ciarla, Lucio Dalla.
In 2006, he opened up his repertoire to include performances on vintage keyboards such as the Hammond organ, the Farfisa, and the Fender Rhodes, etc. This has given his creative and musical mind additional freedoms to venture deeper into the enigmas of psychedelic jazz music. In 2009, along with Carlo Borsini of the Borsini Acccordion factory, Vincenzo helped to design a new system for accordion registers which allows the player to widen the range of sound coming from the instrument. After more than a year of construction, testing, and design, this Signature accordion was officially presented at the Frankfurt fair in April 2011. Richard Galliano, speaking about young accordionists in an interview which was published in the French magazine “Jazzman” said: “The person that really impressed me is a young Italian with an origin from Puglia, Italy: his name is Vincenzo Abbracciante. In every piece he embarks on a story which touches me.”
