Tonino De Sensi

Tonino DeSensi was born in Toronto, Canada in 1963. In 1969, he and his family migrated back to Calabria. He lived in Calabria, Italy from 1970 until 1982, and it was during this time that he received his first guitar as a gift from his father for his fourteenth birthday. He began his studying guitar by first playing the songs of singer-songwriters, and then he studied classical guitar. In 1980, he listened to “Saudade do Brasil,” by Irio de Paula and felt deeply touched by the possibility of new musical horizons, new melodies, harmonies, and, perhaps most of all, new rhythms. The following year, a meeting with the great musician Gigi Cifarelli changed Tonino’s musical destiny. He started studying jazz guitar, and then changed his instrument in 1991 to play the bass for Cifarelli’s group. During this time, he graduated in 1988 with a degree in Music, and this enabled him to become a music teacher. He began teaching and playing music regularly around the same time. Tonino started working as a musician in 1991, where he played as a saxophonist in different clubs in Lombardy, and he gained a tremendous amount of experience working together with Cifarelli. Together, they played live concerts and other shows. During this time, Tonino had the opportunity to meet several musicians who had different origins, and this exposed and allowed him to study arrangements in detail and to settle on the style of music he most enjoyed. He now perceives arrangements as the reason for the feeling of freedom the music offers him. He believes now that the search for this sense of freedom in artistic expression should be the most important aspect of discovering art in oneself, regardless of what current trends suggest