Sandro Di Stefano

Sandro Di Stefano was born in a little town in Italy called Ceccano, famous in the world because was the the country of the actor Nino Manfredi. Composer, arranger, conductor, sound designer. Brilliantly graduated at the Music Conservatory "A. Casella " in L'Aquila, Italy. Winner of Prize in Composition and European Study Scholarships such as the one in "Film Score Composition and Musical Arrangement ("Mogol's Cet" - 1994), graduated and specialized at Cet under the guide of famous soundtrack composer Stelvio Cipriani. Sandro is author of a long series of audiovisual, around 60 between feature, film and TV, docs, short film, commercials and installations. His activity is directed towards the "Composition, Orchestration , Arranging, Programming and Orchestra Direction", in the soundtrack side, in Italy, Germany, Belgium, France and the US, where he received remarkable public consensus and excellent critique. He has conducted and recorded arrangements and original songs with important orchestras like "Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra " of Sofia, and the MediaPro Orchestra of Bucharest, recording music for artists such as Ornella Vanoni, Mario Lavezzi, Eugenio Bennato, Arturo Sandoval (by Kemper music), Fabrizio De André and for record labels like Sony / Columbia, Warner, Peer Music, Kemper Music, Paoline Audiovisual, Berben, Igs , Rai Tade. At the Media Pro Studios in Bucharest, he directed the "Concertissimo Orchestra" for all the tracks on the new album by Ornella Vanoni "Meticci", produced by Sony Music / Columbia, executive producer Mario Lavezzi. In the same Studios, and with the same orchestra, he conducted the orchestra for Arturo Sandoval, produced by Kemper Music (Latin Grammy Award). He is well known for his arrangement for orchestra and guitar of Fabrizio de André's song "La canzone dell'amore perduto" commissioned by the original publisher of De André, played by Mario Lavezzi. In July 2013, the famous "Ciak Magazine" inserts his songs in the Golden List, among the best pop songs in movie sound tracks. He is 'co - author of University book "Music for images" (ed. Net Art Company) with the Oscar winners Ennio Morricone and Nicola Piovani. The book was in use at the University of Lecce (Italy). He is author and arranger of many series of music for the cinema , Tv, drama, sitcoms, documentaries, TV commercials, multivision, industrial films, animated cartoons and multimedia installations of International interest. Sandro is an expert in computer music (also audio / video ) and virtual instrumentation systems, midi recording and audio / video editing. He works with major Productions record Companies and International film as Rai Cinema, UC - films (Germany), Motion Art Film (USA), Renaissance Pictures (USA), Borgo dello Spettacolo (Italy), La Sarraz Pictures (Italy), Cinecittà /Luce (Italy), Unicity s.p.a. (Italy), Blueray (Italy), Gran Mirci Film (Italy), Cabiria Film (Italy) , Altarpiece (Italy) , Pauline audiovisual (Italy) and many other. His original soundtracks are produced by world major record labels like Warner, IGS and Peer Music Italy, that produce his records and control the worldwide distribution. He was a guest of the "Berklee College of Music" in Boston to give lessons and concerts about his music and 900's music. Composer and arranger of the original music for the Official Multivision (2006) for the Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Italian Republic Constitution, performed at Montecitorio (Foundation House of Representatives); Composer and arranger of the original music for the Official Multivision (2010) for the celebration of the Bicentennial of Giuseppe Garibaldi at the Vittoriano in Rome (Unicity s.p.a.). In Italy he has recently worked on films as "Una vita da sogno" (A dream life) with M. Ceccherini, A. Paci, C. Del Basso; "Fantasticherie di un passeggiatore solitario" ("Reveries of a solitary walker") with Luca Lionello; "Deline" of Giacomo Franciosa; "Amorth, the exorcist " of Giacomo Franciosa; and "Second Spring" of Francesco Calogero, original soundtrack recorded with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sandro Di Stefano ; "Janara, the witch of Benevento ", produced by Warner. The film "Fantasticherie di un passeggiatore solitario" ("Reveries of a solitary walker"), in November 2014, won the "Best Film prize" at the Nizza Festival "The Samain du film fantastique" and "Best Film" at the Boston Sci_fi Film Festival. With the same film in 2015 he won the "Best Music Award" at Coruna Film Festival (FKM). In April 2016, "Second Spring" won the Gold Remi Award in the category Foreign Film at the 49th Worldfest Houston. With the film "The Eve" he won the follow prizes : Best Original Music at Los Angeles Horror Competition (USA, 2015); International Indipendent Film Award (USA, 2015); NYC Film Awards (USA, 2015); International Movie Awards 2016 (Jakarta); Best Sound Design at International Indipendent Film Award (USA, 2015); Deph of field International Film Festival Competition (USA, 2016). He composed, arranged and directed music for special projects such as the Multivision of "The World of Federico II", a great production of Cinecittà and Unicity SpA, with Remo Girone and Lorenza Indovina among the primary actors. The French "Alparc" called him to compose, arrange and direct the original music for a Multivision about the Protected European Areas, EU project funded by the German government and broadcasted in six different European Countries. He has composed original soundtracks for multiple winner films like "The Last Battle of the Alps" (Cinecittà / Ist. Luce ) Winner of the "Premio RAI" to the Trento Film Festival; "Piero della Francesca e il polittico della misericordia" ("Piero della Francesca and the politician of the mercy "; events such as Earth Day, Puglia Region/ Fiera del Levante, Eni, Acer, Acea, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, City of Milan, Istituto Luce and many others. He composed the original soundtrack for the Musical Opera Theatre dedicated to the Beatification of Pope John Paul II (2011) "Lolek, the young Wojtyla "edited and produced by Paoline Editoriale Audiovisivi. It had the world premiere and three replicates in Lithuania and was performed by the Choir of the Philharmonic Society of Kaunas. Other important works for Pauline Editoriale Audiovisivi: "Fragments of Light"; "Ondina" and "Open wide the doors to Christ" - further works dedicated to the figure of John Paul II. He composed and arranged the original music for the memorial project "The ship of legality" dedicated to the figures of Falcone and Borsellino on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Education. He has worked with the US on the original soundtrack for "Attic", for the American TV thriller film directed by William Hellmuth and produced by Renaissance Pictures of Los Angeles. He is currently working again in the USA in large production record companies and films. He is Editorial Director of two series of Contemporary Music review for Bèrben Music Publishing, distributed around the world: "IGS" and "Newtone" series by Bèrben Publishing House. He has performed more than once in Spain, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and USA, guest of prestigious Institutions and International Festivals. From January 2014 he works at the original soundtracks of the documentaries for the TV format "Animal Chronicles" Rai Due Tv, music published by Warner. In November 2014 he signed the original soundtrack for the commercial "Rai per il Sociale" and, at the same time in Paris, runs the Premiere of his "Magnificat" for chorus, soloist and orchestra. "E' 'na Janara", is his latest song, written, arranged and conducted. The verses are made by Eugenio Bennato, who has also sung in the original version in duo with Pietra Montecorvino, included in the soundtrack of film "Janara ", entirely composed, arranged and directed from Sandro Di Stefano, Orchestra: "Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra", Sofia (Bulgaria). In 2015 he was the composer and sound designer of the Vatican main works about the Vatican Museum called "Alla scoperta dei Musei Vaticani" produced by Vatican Tv, Rai Com, La Repubblica, Gruppo l'Espresso, Officina della comunicazione. 6 DVD and 300 minutes of original music, completely composed, arranged and conducted by the author. This "series" is a TV series distributed in world in the world too. Early 2016 he signed the original music for the film "Padre Pio, builder of Mercy", produced by Vatican TV. The educational activity is an important part of his mission, he held lectures and specialist laboratories in major Italian and European Institutions, devoting himself to the creation of original programs designed for practical and theoretical study for Directors, Video Editors, Composers. He is teacher of "Music Composition Techniques" at F. Ghedini Conservatory (Italy) and at CESMA (Swiss). In May 2016 his is at work on the follow OST : "Unhinged" and "Flashburn" both films directed by Giorgio Serafini and produced by Smoke Hammer Media (USA). From 2017 he works with Polish Cinema, won the Best Music Award at Polish Film Festival and nominations at ORLY Award; USA Cinema, on Movies with stars like Dolph Lundgren, Christopher Lambert, distributed by LionsGate and soundtracks produced by Companies Latin Grammy Award like Kemper Music. He's teacher of Composition for Screen at E.R. DUNI Conservatory of Music, Matera (Italy), European City of Culture.