After completing many years of demanding music studies (first at Conservatorio di S. Cecilia in Rome and then in the Konzert-Klasse at the Musik Akademie in Basel with Oscar Ghiglia), Marco Cappelli has lead an extraordinary artistic path, becoming familiar both with rigorous written music as well with free improvisation languages.
The diversity of Marco’s performances is due to a fascinating array of collaborations (Anthony Coleman, Michel Godard, Butch Morris, Franco Piersanti, Jim Pugliese, Enrico Rava, Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, Giovanni Sollima, Markus Stockhausen, Cristina Zavalloni and more) and regularly as guest in important classical and contemporary music series (Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Associazione A. Scarlatti di Napoli, Ravenna Festival, Festival Traiettorie di Parma, Cinque passi nel ’900 al Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Guggenheim Museum in New York, Italian Academy at Columbia University New York, Salzburg Festival, Ruhr Triennale...) as well in jazz and avantgarde music festivals (Saalfelden Jazz Festival - Austria, Pomigliano Jazz - Italy, Grim in Marseille - France, Barnsdall Theatre in Los Angeles, Tonic in New York, OutPut Festival in Amsterdam...) both as a soloist and in ensemble settings.
Among the founders of the acclaimed Italian contemporary music group "Ensemble Dissonanzen" , Marco Cappelli currently lives in New York, where he is involved with the contemporary and avantgarde music scene.
He is Guitar Professor at Conservatory “Vincenzo Bellini” in Palermo and Music Associate at Columbia University in New York. More over he has been Sharon Isbin’s assistant at the Aspen Music Festival and School ’06 (Colorado), and guest professor at Julliard School in New York (2004), Cal Poly Pomona (Los Angeles: 2003,2005,2006), University of Guadalajara (Mexico: 2004, 2007).
Marco has recorded three solo guitar cds : "Fantasia per Ensemble" and "Yun Mu"for the for the Italian label TDS, and EGP (Extreme Guitar Project: Music from Downtown New York) for the prestigiuos American label Mode Records. Mode Records also published two cds by Ensemble Dissonanzen, where Cappelli is involved in G. Petrassi’s and H.W. Henze’schamber Music.