OnClassical: Alessandro Simonetto

A tremendous natural talent. (Eric James, music associate of Sir Charles S. Chaplin).

Short bio.

Alessandro Simonetto is a versatile musician and music producer.

His preference for board instruments was clear when as a child he began to play as a self-taught pianist.
Alessandro started composing at a very early age. At 14 y.o. he wrote a cycle of Mazurkas inspired by Chopin. He deepened aspects of jazz composition and silent-film music, and became a close friend with Eric James, the associate composer of Sir Charles Chaplin, until his death. In 2000, a few minutes before his performance, James put a paper on the grand piano, and in front of the audience wrote: "Alessandro is a pianist of immense talent and will surely make his mark on the musical profession [...]".

Alessandro Simonetto
Photo by ©Federica Vettori.

Alessandro composed music for piano, organ, harpsichord, disklavier, computers, magnetic tape; chamber music and choral music (masses, motets, arrangements), songs. His compositions are included in collections at 'Ecole supérieure d'art d'Aix-en-Provence' and Mediateca delle Marche archive.

After a long period without playing, absorbed by the activity of being a producer, and making over 250 recordings for various musicians and labels, Alessandro began recording himself at both the piano and harpsichord, and obtaining such acclaim from the critics as: The Suittes voor Clavicembel (Suites Op. 1) [BC94187] was nominated Recording of the Month by Music-Web International ("Nearly eighty minutes of enormously appealing, high-octane invention superbly rendered by Alessandro Simonetto."). Furthermore his world première of Leroy Shield: Laurel & Hardy's Original Piano Music [AE16024], performed at the piano, was awarded (5 stars) both on classical and jazz/pop magazines worldwide (Mojo, Piano International, Teatro, The L&H Magazine, Intra-Tent Journal, Furore, Pözenkrant) and widespread @ radios worldwide (BBC, CBC/ICI Musique, RAI Radio 3, NPO, BR Klassik, IPR, Ouverture).
To end Alessandro's version of Erik Satie: Early & Esoteric Works (1887-1897) [AE16019], also including the world première sketch Chanson Hungroise, was widely reviewed (4 Etoiles Classica on others).
Passionate about ragtime, in 2017-18 Alessandro recorded the Complete Piano Works by Scott Joplin [two albums published in the early 2018 / OC18022d].

He is the founder of the digital label OnClassical.

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List of recordings by Alessandro Simonetto.

Harpsichord music:
2011 - Bustijn, P.: 9 Suites (Complete Harpsichord Works) - Brilliant Classics BC94187
2017 - Mattheson, J.: 12 Suites (Complete Harpsichord Works) - Brilliant Classics BC95588 [2CD]

Next projects:
2019 - Paradies, D.: 8 Sonatas (Complete Harpsichord Works) - Brilliant Classics [?]

Piano Music:
2016 - Satie, E.: Early & Esoteric Works - ÆVEA AE16019 [3CD]
2016 - Shield, L.: The Laurel & Hardy Original Piano Music - ÆVEA AE16024
2016 - Shield, L.: Laurel & Hardy: Original Piano Music (1930-31, 1935-36) - ÆVEA AE16024d
2017 - Joplin, S.: 33 Ragtimes & Waltzes - OnClassical OC18022d [2CD]
2018 - Tiersen, Y.: Selected Piano Works - ÆVEA AE18048 (withdrawn at the behest of the performer)

To be released:
2017-18 - Joplin, S.: The Complete Piano Music (Ragtimes, Marches, Waltzes, Collaborations & Tango) - OnClassical [To be released] [3CD] *

* Includes most of the pieces recorded in 2017, plus the missing pieces and some makeover.

The websites.

As a database and music lover together, Alessandro founded kunstderfuge.com (since 2002), a large collection of classical music online, that contains 20,000 files including piano rolls of historical pianists as well as live performances fixed on MIDI support. Some of the files have also been automatically obtained thanks to a special software, Director Musices, improved with special rules; the work achieved Alessandro a scholarship at KTH University of Stockholm, TMH music section.

At the same time he started an online collection of classical music in MP3, representing some of the more interesting young musicians from Italy and abroad. A few time later this collection evolved in a real record label, OnClassical, first example of author'-societies-free label according to the principles of Creative Commons.

Beside, in 2004, Alessandro also launched classicaland.com, a collection of old sheet music books, out of copyright, he bought all around Europe. The site become affiliated to the major Kunst der Fuge but was stopped uploading after some months due to the born of imslp.org. In the meantime kunstderfuge.com reached the 6,000 unique visitors/day!

In 2005 OnClassical started a new catalogue with only self-produced recordings. It then appeared in major Italian newspapers, radios, music magazines, blogs and exhibitions always as a non-paying guest. Alessandro's recordings, thanks to external licenses gave to physical labels, achieved honors by the worldwide magazines and specialized blogs, including Fanfare, Diapason Mag, Scherzo, Musica, The Guardian, Fono, BBC Magazine, incoda.de, TNT Audio...

You may contact Alessandro here.