MARCO ZANOTTI
Curriculum ENG
SHORT BIO
Marco Zanotti is a visionary cultural agitator, director of the Classica Orchestra Afrobeat and member of Cucoma Combo, Lolo, Del Barrio. He has released more than forty albums, always bridging popular traditions, research and experimentation, practice and ethnomusicology.
He has collaborated with numerous international artists (recently Rokia Traore, Lenna Bahule, Elisa Ridolfi, Yuck Miranda, Fatoumata Dembele, Pavel Urkiza, the baroque choir Voz Latina) and he is the Italian translator of Fela Kuti's biography.
For more than fifteen years, he has led a multifaceted and curious workshop called Officina del ritmo and he works regularly with theater companies (Le belle bandiere, Fantateatro, Magnifico teatrino errante) and contemporary dance companies (2022 Ubu Prize with Roberto Castello/ALDES).
COMPLETE BIO
A visionary and unconventional musician and composer, cultural agitator and artistic director. His trajectory of studies and research began on the drums and then moved toward new sonic territories, bridging popular traditions (especially non-European) and experimentation, between practice and ethnomusicology.
STUDIES
He immediately preferred popular maestros to academic study, and so, after the first years of private studies with Enzo Vallicelli and other teachers in his region in Italy called Romagna, he studied and specialized abroad with masters in Cuba (Alexis Arce, Ruy Lopez-Nussa, Changuito), Brazil (Nene, Giba Conceiçao), Colombia (Afroneto), Senegal (Mamadou Diagne), Zimbabwe (Salani Wamkanganise, Kudzai Kazai), Belize, Guadeloupe, Mozambique, Andalusia, Argentina, and Cape Verde.
In 2004, he graduated in Foreign Languages and Literatures with a thesis on the son of Nicolás Guillén, a Cuban mulatto poet.
ACTIVITIES
He is the founder and director of the Classica Afrobeat Orchestra, with which he has released four albums with guests Rokia Traoré, Seun Kuti, Sekouba Bambino, Baba Sissoko and Njamy Sitson, performing at numerous theaters and festivals, including the Glastonbury Festival in UK.
He currently carries out various original projects, such as the band Cucoma Combo, the duo with Gambian griot and kora virtuoso Jabel Kanuteh, and LOLO.
The journey, whether internal or external, is a constant in his diverse discography of over 40 albums, whether avant-garde and improvisational (Mothra, Red Planet, Kagnara, and the long-running duo with Fabio Mina), or languages that draw on folk and popular traditions, as in the ensembles Del Barrio (Arg), Cumbia Poder (Col), Regional Matuto (Br) and Jacaré.
He has collaborated with Antonella Ruggero, Patrizia Laquidara (Critics' Award at Sanremo in 2003), Elisa Ridolfi (Tenco Award in 2024), Fatoumata Dembele, Mozambican dancer Yuck Miranda, Lenna Bahule (Moz), Elio Camalle (Bra), Pavel Urkiza (Cub), Patrick Ruffino (Ben), and various choral ensembles such as the Coro Voz Latina (Arg) and the Coro Farthan.
His first solo work (Re-Flexio, 2021), is a concept album that, through field recordings and unusual instruments, expresses the importance of looking at the complexity of reality from different anglements.
OTHER LANGUAGES
He translated and edited the Italian edition of Fela Kuti's biographie by Carlos Moore (Arcana 2012), which gave rise to the play Gentleman together with Federico Faggioni and directed by reknown choreographer Roberto Castello. For this latter, he composed and performed the music for the contemporary dance performances Mbira (2018) and Inferno (UBU Award for Best Dance Performance 2022), also publishing his soundtrack (Inferno Tapes, 2022).
He also collaborates with actress Elena Bucci and the company Le Belle Bandiere. He has composed and performed in numerous plays including Lettere a Nour (ERT, 2018), Dance on the Tree (Magnifico Teatrino Errante, 2017), The Jungle Book, The Aeneid, Zorro (Fantateatro), for the soundtrack of the film Gauguin in Tahiti (Nexo, 2019), and as part of the musical research and co-creation project Pamoja Odyssey in the Indian Ocean in 2019.
TEACHING
For years, he has been running the creative laboratory Officina del ritmo and holding masterclasses and workshops related to rhythm in Italy and abroad, collaborating with various masters and teachers, such as Alejandro Oliva, Indio Atucà Olegui, Stella Chiweshe, Masa Daiko, Charles Raszl.
He is also the artistic director of NGOMA Rifugio Creativo (La Favela APS), and Mama's Club in Ravenna.
"We are as far away as possible from common listening references." [Exibart]
