ANTONIO MALINCONICO 

 

Classical and acoustic guitar,

Switzerland

Born in 1979 in St. Gallen, where he grew up, the boy with Italian roots was involved in diverse musical projects from classical to rock at a very young age. He experimented, gained experience and discovered his love for the classical guitar. In 2005, he completed his five-year guitar studies by Jury Clormann at the Zurich University of the Arts with honors. Where his studies gave him a fundamental basis, his travels through Central and South America, as well as through the Middle East, gave him a window to a wide variety of guitar playing styles. Tango and South American folklore served to broaden his musical horizons as well as playing in rock bands like Kaolin, Stahlberger & band or together with the singer and songwriter BB Frances at St. Gallen Openair In 2006.

Antonio Malinconico’s family is originally from the countryside of Naples in Italy, where he spent most of the summer during his childhood. 2021 after several years of teaching experiences in Switzerland and Germany, he decided to move back to where his family roots came from. The Mediterranean environment inspires and enables the composer and guitarist to dedicate himself to developing his music, which reflects the emotions of the South. Characterized by passion and an unfathomable melancholy – as professed in his name. These contrasting emotions melt together to form the bitter-sweet mixture that defines southern art and culture and penetrates Argentinian folklore, tango and Neapolitan folk music in equal measure. Argentinian guitar music, compositions by master Astor Piazzolla and Jorge Cardoso in particular, epitomises Malinconico’s work. The “St. Galler Kampanier”, a name emphasising Malinconico’s Italian heritage and Swiss origin, interprets them with his very own mixture of southern temperament and northern balance.

Antonio Malinconico looks back upon a long-standing, diverse career of live performances. Since 2009, he has travelled through Switzerland, Germany and Austria with his trio named “Antonio Malinconico e Amici”. Following the release of the solo album entitled “Vamos al Sur” and “Por Siempre Sur” with solo concerts in Switzerland and Germany ensued in 2011 and 2013, alongside five exclusive concerts in Buenos Aires and inland Argentina. At the beginning of 2014, he has contributed to the Night of NylonGuitars founded by Martin Müller from Germany. Every year, several concerts were held in the German region spanning Karlsruhe to Dresden are met with resounding approval from the audience.

In November 2015, Argentinian guitarist and composer Juan Falú invited Antonio Malinconico to Argentina to perform at the worldwide well-known Guitar Festival “Guitarras del Mundo”. Five concerts were held in the renowned concert halls of Argentinian cities like San Miguel, Córdoba, San Luis, Mendoza and San Juan. An unforgettable experience where he met an performed other classical guitarist at the same level. In summer 2016 Antonio Malinconico travelled to Asia and played a nearly two-hour concert in Munetsugu Hall Nagoya in Japan, which was a very special experience. He was invited another time in 2018 and played 8 concerts including Munetsugu Hall. He met the founder Mr. Munetsugu personally as he was a classical music lover and therefore founded Munetsugu hall to give artist a platform to perform. Antonio Malinconico played concerts all around Japan from Toyko, Nagoya, Kyoto to Hiroshima and Okinawa.

His discography reflects his relentless work. In recent years, he has released several CDs. Only by the end of 2016 his new CD entitled “Cambio de Cuerdas”, translating to “a change of strings” was released. The title stems from Malinconico’s endeavour to broaden his repertoire, moving beyond Argentinian pieces to incorporate music from other Latin American countries. These new 2 additions were inspired by musical encounters over the past two years, such as those with Martin Müller (Germany), Federico Diaz (New York City) and Edsart Udo de Haes (the Netherlands). Later on he released the CD “Postcards for Guitar” inspired by Helmuth Helfti, his former guitar teacher in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The music scores and compositions can be acquired at the online shop Editions Partita.

In 2021, Antonio Malinconico moved from Germany to the home town of his family in the South of Italy and is since then playing concerts solo or in duo in Italy, Germany and Switzerland.

He had a tango guitar project Koinè Guitar Duo with Alessandro Petrosino from Napoli and 2024 they have played concerts in Lecce for the Lupiae Guitar Festival  and in Capri at the  Capri Art Festival. The concert in Naples during the yearly held Vomero Music Festival was accompanied by two tango famous tango dancers Vincenzo Caiazzo e Oxana Matskevich. The video of the performance was released on youtube.

From 2020-2025 he published some videos on youtube with pieces composed by Helmuth Hefti from Switzerland like “Winnie the Pooh”, “Chili for Lily” or “A Shade of Bach” summarized in the album “Postcards for Guitar”. Other artistic videos can be found from composers like Thomas Fellow, Andrew York, Antonio Lauro or Astor Piazzolla just to mention a few.

During his nearly 30 years of music career Antonio Malinconico played concerts all around the world from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Scotland, France, Italy, Greece, Montenegro, Turkey to Argentina and Japan.