TRAINING AND ACTIVITIES
Marco Battaglia was born in 1969 in Milan where his high school studies were concentrated in the classics and afterwards he studied law and philosophy at the State University. On top of all this, he dedicated himself to the guitar carrying out his training at the Civic School of Music. In 1995 he graduated from the Conservatory and went on to specialize in the interpretation of 19th century music paying close attention to matters of performance practice. He participated in several courses using original instruments of the 1800’s and is an esteemed interpreter of Classical and Romantic period sources utilizing period guitars of major luthiers like Fabricatore and Filano which are part of his private collection. Among the many internationally renowned performers and educators that influenced his musical background the following can be cited: O. Ghiglia, R. Chiesa, P. O’Brien, C. Wilson and D. Russell.

ARTISTIC EXPERIENCES
He carries out an intense career as a performer, lecturer, teacher, and researcher. In 2001, was artistic director of the series “Concerti per gli angeli” at Sant’Angelo’s Church in Milan. He has mostly given solo guitar concerts, but also has played with chamber groups, such as R. Rivolta’s Tactus Ensemble as well as performing several times as a soloist with an orchestra. As a soloist, he has performed aboard in prestigious institutions, amongst them, at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (where he held a solo recital at the Centre de langue et culture italienne), in Bonn (Spakasse, Deutsch-Italienischen Gesellschaften) and in Switzerland – organization: Dante Alighieri Society – in Basle, (where he played also at the Schmiedenhof) as well as in Lausanne, Bern, Biel (Neuhaus Museum), Lucerna, Aarau, Neuchâtel (Centre des Terreaux), Olten and Locarno (Palazzo Borghese). In Italy, he has performed under the aegis of the following cities, for example, Milan (more than 60 concerts for institutions as Teatro alla Scala Museum, Sforza Castle, Humanitarian Society, Fondazione Stelline Foundation, Spanish Cultural Centre, Austrian Forum, also collaborating with the Czech and Hungarian Consulates, and the Slovakian Institute in Rome, etc.), in Monza (Teatrino della Villa Reale and Società di Concerti “Corona Ferrea”), Lodi (Archivio Storico), Campione d’Italia (Auditorium “Mons. Baraggia”), Cantu’, Varese International Festival (the world famous guitarist John Williams was also a performer at the same Festival), Gallarate, (“Aloisianum”), Boario (Terme), Gonzaga (MN), Pavia (Teatro Politeama), Vigevano (Festival), Torino, Casale Monferrato (Teatro Municipale), Genova (“Carlo Felice” Theatre, Town Hall...), “Chitarralmperia” Spring Festival and Seminars (where played also Alirio Diaz, Benjamin Verdery, Eliot Fisk and Roland Dyens), Bordighera (the opening of the series “Note e Parole d’Estate”), Festival “Carniarmonie” Festival, Florence (“Il suono dell’anima”- Educatorio del Fuligno / Summer Florence Festival), Empoli (Festival “Luci della citta’”, Centro Studi F. Busoni”), Montalcino, Forte dei Marmi (soloist with the Symphonic Orchestra “Le Stanze di Orfeo” conducted by Lorenzo Parigi - Concerto opus 30 by Giuliani and Sinfonia n. 30 - with “concertante” guitar - by Boccherini), Carrara (Teatro degli Animosi), Isola del Giglio, Rome (Palazzo Barberini), Fiuggi (Teatro delle Fonti), Sagra Musicale Umbra International Festival, Spoleto (“Estate Spoletina”- Rocca Albornoziana), Reggio Calabria (Accademia di Belle Arti, Piazza del Duomo), Messina (Filarmonica Laudamo, Teatro Savio), Taormina (Palazzo dei Duchi di Santo Stefano), Tempio Pausania (Sassari), Villasimius (Cagliari). He gave the world premier of a contemporary composition by Peruvian composer Alejandro Nunez Allauca. His revisions are published by Pizzicato Verlag Helvetia.

ITALIAN PATRIOT GIUSEPPE MAZZINI’S GUITAR
In 1998, he made his debut at “Carlo Felice” Theatre in Genoa having enormous success with both the public and the critics. He performed on a guitar which once belonged to patriot Giuseppe Mazzini, property of the Risorgimento Museum of Genoa. He also played as a duo with a violin that once belonged to Paganini and was bought by his student, Camillo Sivori. The concert was preceded by a lecture given by Professor Marcello De Angelis, Music History teacher at the Florence University. The event, made possible also by the collaboration of the “Niccolo’ Paganini” Conservatory of Genoa, was following the first concert in modern times with this historical instrument (Gennaro Fabricatore, Naples 1821) at the Stelline Foundation of Milan - in synergy with Franco Parenti Theatre -: on the program were solo pieces for guitar by the composers cited in the letters and “Philosophy of music” of the Patriot. It was his idea to restore the instrument for this occasion. Marco Battaglia repeated this program at the Istituto Mazziniano in Genoa, in Turin for the National Museum of Italian Risorgimento at the historic Artists’ Circle, most recently for the prestigious international series Sagra Musicale Umbra, in Milan at the “Civico Museo di Milano” and at the Palazzo Dugnani (in this last case, in 2001, also under the aegis of the National Commitee for Celebrations of Verdi’s 200 birthday). He had already highlighted Mazzini’s passion for music and the guitar in some concerts and conferences, in Genoa for the XXI Congress of the Associazione Mazziniana Italiana, in Turin for the Lions Club Torino Valentino and Moncalieri Castello, and in Milan at both the Palazzo Greppi as part of the 58th Congress of the Institute for the Study of Italian Risorgimento and the series “W V.E.R.D.I.: musica per una Nazione” (carried out in collaboration with the Symphonic Orchestra “Giuseppe Verdi”) at the Museo di Storia Contemporanea of the Civiche Raccolte Storiche.