Alessandro d'Episcopo

Alessandro d'Episcopo was born in Naples on February 1, 1959. Already at the age of 13, he decided to devote his life to music and to become a jazz musician. He studied classical music at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples. In 1979, he moved to Milano which was the heart of the Italian jazz at that time. Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett have influenced d'Episcopo's formation since his earliest youth as vivid examples for musical diversity and curiosity.

He has worked with various musicians such as: Tullio de Piscopo, Larry Nocella, Gigi Cifarelli, Chet Baker, Tony Scott, Gianni Basso, Billiy Cobham, Toots Thielemans. He played at the jazz festivals in Umbria, Clusone, Sant'Anna Arresi (Sardinia), Padova, Livorno, Cagliari and Genua.
Together with Tullio De Piscopo he has composed and recorded the music of Pasquale Squitieri's movie «Naso di Cane» (RAI 1).

At the age of 30, he moved to Zurich to further broaden his musical development and career, studying classical music with Rudolf am Bach. At the same time, he attended courses of Thierry Lang at the Conservatory of Montreux, obtaining after two years his diploma in Jazz Performance. D'Episcopo has always been - and still is - eager to passionately explore all the various stylistic directions. Driven to go forward and to experience new dimensions, he studied Jazz Improvisation with Charly Banacos (Boston/USA) for many years.

His urge for musical freedom and his enthusiasm induce him to participate in most diverse events and to work with different musicians like George Robert, Franco Ambrosetti, Marianne Racine, Benny Bailey, Peter Appleyard, Julio Barreto, Phil Wilson, etc.

D'Episcopo's musical versatility is reflected in his present activity:
- teaching at the Jazz School of Zurich and the Music School of Zug
- playing with various bands: JMR4/Jürg Morgenthaler; Key Bone/Stefan Schlegel; Elmar Frey Sextett; Latin Project/Martin Bürgi; Standard Edition/Marc Halbheer und David Angel
- performing with his own trio; recording the first CD in February 2002
- participating as Side Man in various CD recordings

June 2005