Marco Giongrandi is a guitarist, composer, singer-songwriter and music teacher from Milan (ITA) based in Brussels (BE) since 2014.Active in various musical scenes around Europe, such as jazz, improvised music, pop and rock, he is also a founding member of the Italian label Honolulu Records, an independent Italian label with a focus on Europe. Marco has studied at the “Civici Corsi di Jazz di Milano” (4 years degree), has a bachelor degree in Jazz from the Conservatory of Milan, a masters degree in Jazz Guitar from the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Brussels and a master degree in pedagogy applied to music (AESS) from the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles. Mostly focused in developing new communicative languages and experimenting with the extemporaneous aspects of the music, whether improvised or not, he was inspired most of all by the teachers Roberto Cecchetto, Franco Cerri, Bebo Ferra, John Taylor, Kris Defoort during his studies. As a performer he was awarded a scholarship for “Best guitar player” at Nuoro Jazz 2009, second place at “Porsche Live Giovani e Jazz 2011” competition with Marta DG Quartet, and has performed twice in “Toots Thielemans Jazz Award” winning ensembles Fil Caporali Quintet and Hendrik Lasure's “warm bad”. In 2015 he released his debut album “Departures” on "Honolulu Records” as leader, composer and arranger of the band “Soares” and have since toured extensively around Europe and China. His current projects include Kettle of Kites, Dear Uncle Lennie, Hendrik Lasure's "Warm Bad”, Honolulu Orchestra, Fil Caporali Quintet, ANK, and many others. He has been working as a Music teacher since 2006 and, since 2021, he works for the public academies of the "Federation Wallonie Bruxelles" for the classes of Jazz Guitar, Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Harmony.
