MICHELE RAMO "Michele Ramo's guitar playing is outstanding and he is a composer to be reckoned with!" ~ guitarist Charlie Byrd "I love the way Michele takes his time and absolutely means everything he says musically - and, in the process draws the audience right in." - Gene Bertoncini, Guitarist MICHELE RAMO (pronounced: Me-KEL-ay) is a 6, 7 & 8 string nylon fingerstyle jazz guitarist, jazz violinist, composer and educator who specializes in bringing American Swing, Brazilian, Gypsy and Latin rhythms together in his playing, as well as composing and arranging for the guitar. A classical-jazz crossover artist in the truest sense of the word, Ramo has a unique and sought-after ability for blending his classical and jazz worlds into his writing, teaching and performance. Ramo is a self-taught guitarist whose formal training and higher education is in violin studies. Ramo always maintained his guitar playing alongside the violin and while working in orchestras. He attended guitar master classes in Italy with Aliro Diaz, and in the United States with Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Charlie Byrd and Joe Pass. RAMO grew up in the small Sicilian village of 'Costiera', located on the southwest coast of Sicily near the fishing port of Mazara del Vallo. He began violin studies at 13 and at the age of seventeen received his first professional contract with the Italian State Symphony opera orchestra "Orchestra Del Teatro Massimo in Palermo. He earned a Master's degree in violin from the music conservatory of Caltanissetta. Ramo toured Europe with the International Mediterranean Youth Orchestra -"Le Juness Du Mediterranee". In 1985 he was contracted with "Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana" and worked as Concert Master with "Orchestra Filarmonica Del Tirrreno touring Italy. After five years in various Italian State Orchestras, Ramo left the orchestra job and moved to the United States in 1987 to pursue his work as a composer and instrumentalist in Jazz. Ramo's jazz festival performances include: The North Sea Jazz Festival (Holland), Molde Jazz (Norway), Fano Jazz (Italy) Montreal Jazz (Canada) Ottava Jazz (Canada), Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Freiburg (Germany), Paris, Ile Del Re, Souillac, (France), Montreux-Detroit Jazz (USA), Cork Jazz (Ireland), Barcelona, Madrid (Spain), Republica de Andorra, Burlington Jazz, Arkansas Jazz (USA) Athens, Corfu, Corintos, and Patras (Greece). Ramo has performed/toured or recorded with guitarists: Bucky Pizzarelli, Paquito D'Rivera, Mundell Lowe, Howard Alden, Al Caiola, Les Paul, Jorge Morel, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Rodney Jones, Wayne Wright, Gene Bertoncini, Jack Wilkins, Vic Juris, Frank Vignola and Jimmy Bruno. Michele and his wife singer/lyricist Heidi Hepler-Ramo perform as a full time duo and live in New York. www.RamoMusic.com