Collection: Catina, Eugenio

EUGENIO CATINA is an Italian guitarist and composer, born in Bagnolo Mella (Brescia) in 1956. His first brush with music, as a young child, was with the clarinet. By the late 1970s he was playing tenor sax in jazz ensembles with luminaries like the guitarist Sandro Gibellini. At the same time, he devoted himself to mastering the classical guitar. He studied under Marco De Santi and graduated in classical guitar at the Conservatory of Alexandria. He also studied harmony and jazz composition under Nino Donzelli at the Centro Studi Musicali of Cremona.

As composer and performer, he released two ‘crossover’ CDs: "Folìas" with percussionist Beppe Gioacchini (M.A.P 1994) and "Mediterranean view" with singer Betty Vittori and accordionist Fausto Beccalossi, (Panastudio 1999). His original compositions feature on the CDs “Apparenze - nuove musiche” (Radio Onda d’Urto - Spazio Classica 1999) and "Dialogo" (M.A.P 2003), both dedicated to Italian classical composers and performed by guitar duo Les Divertissements. Other compositions feature on "Chitarra lieve" (M.A.P 2006), performed by guitarist Maria Vittoria Jedlowski ; and "Canto di Primavera" (M.A.P 2007), a monographic CD by guitarist Claudio Ballabio. In 2005 Ballabio presented a dissertation to the Milan Conservatory entitled "Eugenio Catina: le piccole cose dell’universo”(“Eugenio Catina: the little things of the universe”).

Reworking "La vita é bella" by Nicola Piovani, Catina composed a suite in four parts for guitar solo, published by Carisch. It was premiered by Ballabio in April 2004 in Milan.

Many of Catina’s works have been published. In 2007, his two-volume "Metodo di armonia per chitarra" (Bèrben Edition) was sent by the publisher to classical guitars teachers at all the Italian conservatories. The book compares classical and jazz harmonic techniques, providing multiple solutions for their use on the guitar. His "48 Preludi" were included in the Bèrben publication “Great Works for Guitar”.