Today we’d like to introduce you to Giuseppe Paradiso.
Hi Giuseppe, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I am a professional drummer, percussionist, recording artist, and composer active as a bandleader, as well as a freelance musician across a wide variety of music genres.
I began playing drums with my mom’s kitchen pots, frying pan, and books at the age of three years old. I received my first toy drum set at the age of four years old and the first drum kit at the age of five when I began taking drum lessons from a local jazz drummer. It’s clear in my mind the memory of my first encounter with a “real” drum set. It was a day when my dad brought me with him to an accordion lesson that he was taking from a local musician in my hometown. We walked into his music studio, and I saw for the first time a drum kit with sparkling drumheads. It was love at first sight; since then, music has guided me through life every day for the past thirty-seven years or so.
Born and raised in Santeramo in Colle, a small town in the province of Bari – Southern Italy, since the very beginning, I have been exposed to a variety of musical genres, listening to, studying, and playing styles that range from jazz and pop to world music, classical and contemporary music. Deepening my musical studies as a teenager, I realized that it was what I wanted to do as a profession; at that time, in fact, I was not doing so great at school because I was practicing drums all day. I began playing my first local gigs at the age of sixteen with my older brother and his band. By the age of eighteen, I was performing with multiple bands and local artists while beginning my training in classical and contemporary music at the Conservatory Of Music N. Piccinni in Bari (Italy). At the conservatory, I studied piano and experimental composition for eight years, and in 2007, I graduated in percussion instruments.
After graduating from the conservatory and having performed for almost a decade in Italy, I knew my musical journey was only beginning. In fact, I was ready to embark in new challenges and professional experience by moving to Paris (France) in 2008. Though, that same year I didn’t know that something completely unexpected was going to change my plans. After attending the Berklee Summer Workshop at Umbria Jazz in Perugia (Italy), I received a scholarship to attend the full program at Berklee College of Music in Boston. This exciting opportunity brought me across the Atlantic for the first time ever in 2008 at the age of twenty-five. Never I had imagined to move that far from my home country; I had never been to the American continent before, neither I spoke English or knew anyone in the United States.
The opportunity to study at Berklee with some of the finest musicians and educators in the world has been an invaluable experience that has opened me a whole new world. During these past sixteen years in Boston, I have been working both as a bandleader and freelance musician in countless and most varied musical contexts, performing and recording with a disparate variety of musicians and artists from different backgrounds, nationalities, and ethnicities. My versatility, researches, and eagerness to learn and explore continues to constantly expose me to new opportunities, challenges, and experiences that shape and develop my artistic identity.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Being a freelance musician or an artist undoubtedly it is not an easy road, in addition to the experiences one has as an immigrant. In my journey so far, I certainly faced and continue to encounter obstacles and challenges. These challenges though, I believe are part of a growth process, necessary to reach our goals, and helped me become a stronger person. Leaving my family, home country, and everything else behind at the age of twenty-five, moving across the Atlantic by myself undoubtedly has been a challenging and rewarding experience at the same time. When I first moved to the United States, I wasn’t even proficient in English, so I had to learn so many things quickly and, at the same time, adapting to a new culture, new lifestyle, and new pretty much everything for me. As a very international person with family and loved ones spread in different countries and continents, I have always dealt with distance from loved ones. Working as a full-time musician for over two decades, up to date, has been for me more of a life’s choice that came, yes, with many achievements, satisfactions, and glorious moments, but also with an extraordinary commitment and dedication, renounces and sacrifices, including financial instability. However, my love and passion for music and the arts, as well as a need of expressing myself through my sound and artistry, continue to help me overcome any obstacle.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Shaping my own identity and voice as an artist, I aim to develop new music and sound to inspire bridge cultures and highlight links within different traditions. Through extensive and ongoing research into multiculturalism, different music styles, and cultures to which I have been exposed musically and personally, I developed a very unique and global sound that transcends boundaries and identities. In my artistic practice, I blend traditions that range from Western classical and contemporary music to Mediterranean, West African, jazz, and improvised music styles. My versatility and skills have led me to work internationally for over two decades, collaborating with hundreds of musicians and artists from around the globe and performing in the most disparate musical contexts and genres. For example, I have professional experiences that range from performing with symphonic orchestras and jazz ensembles to playing drums with a Nigerian choir and anything in between. The myriad of musical projects I have been involved in over the years between Europe and the United States include jazz, pop, flamenco, Mbalax and other West African styles, Turkish and Mediterranean music styles, contemporary music for ensembles as well as solo percussion. My appearances as a sideman drummer include about thirty albums and performances at venues such as Panama Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Conservatoire Superieur de Paris, Harvard University, Berklee Performance Center, Turkish Embassy (Washington D.C), Festival Duni and stadium San Nicola in Italy.
Since 2011, I lead Meridian 71, a cross-cultural music project based in Boston, MA. With this project, I released three albums as a leader, featuring my original compositions: Otherness Collection (2012), Metropolitan Sketches (2020), and Parallel Dimensions (2022), selected in the first ballot of the 2022 Grammy-Awards (Best Contemporary Instrumental Album). Since 2021, I am a signed artist to the London-based record label Ubuntu Music. Meridian 71 has received significant national and international recognition through radio airplay, podcast interviews, reviews, and articles in the Americas, UK, Europe, Africa, and Australia.
My experiences, not only as a drummer and percussionist but also as a bandleader and composer, have shaped and enriched my professional and personal life, giving me the opportunity and maturity to develop my own unique sound and an artistic identity characterized by all influences I have been exposed to since childhood.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success for me is the achievement of a vision or a goal, not necessarily related to external recognition by others. I believe it is fundamental to discover what we really love to do, search in our inner nature, and persevere to reach our goals. Being able to do whatever you love to do at your best is indeed a form of success.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.giuseppe-paradiso.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giuseppeparadiso2/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giuseppeparadisomeridian71/
- Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/giuseppe.paradiso.391/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFgN-n-3ZjPENfyseYKRLZA
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/giuseppeparadisomusic
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/meridian_71/
Image Credits
Sam Dulay Bruce
Slava Tolstoy
Adrien H. Tillmann
Nicola Paradiso
Joe Musacchia
Bjorn Wennas
