“Paolo Schianchi is one of the most outstanding musicians I’ve ever come across throughout my career.”
Charlie Rapino (Sony, Decca, Polydor), UK
PAOLO SCHIANCHI is a musician capable of mastering all the varieties of the guitar, from the Renaissance lute to visionary instruments that he personally invented and patented (including a 49-string guitar and the Octopus®). With four master’s degrees in music and communication, he is the first Artist in Residence in the history of Pennsylvania’s Saint Francis University (founded 1847), the first artist to perform a solo guitar concert at the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the first person to have retrieved, restored, and transcribed—after more than four centuries of oblivion—unpublished manuscripts by the Renaissance composer Santino Garsi da Parma. Schianchi has received national and international awards both as a performer and composer.
Schianchi has performed countless times on national radio and TV (RSI, Rai, Mediaset, WTAJ, TEDx) and has collaborated with artists such as Bernardo Lanzetti (PFM), Steve Hackett (Genesis), Giulio Carmassi (Pat Metheny Unity Band), Malika Ayanne (MTV Awards), Jim Donovan (Rusted Root, Santana, Led Zeppelin), Dietrich Paredes (El Sistema), Anthony Wellington (Victor Wooten Band), John Turturro, Michael Di Jiacomo, and many others. He was awarded an EB-1 visa for life from the United States (the so-called “Einstein visa”) for “extraordinary abilities” in the artistic field, which is usually reserved for Nobel Laureates. Since 2017, Paolo has directed the Innovatory of Music, an innovative international program designed to support young talents that has partnered with prestigious institutions such as the WBG and the Berklee College of Music. Through the Innovatory of Music Foundation, he also directs the activities of the Music Department of Casa Italiana Ente Promotore, a non-profit engaged in the discussion of Italian culture in Washington D.C.