Carlo Domeniconi

Carlo Domeniconi (born 1947) is an Italian guitarist and composer known as a concert artist in both the classical and jazz idioms. Born in Cesena, Italy, he received his first instruction with Carmen Lenzi Mozzani at the age of 13. By age 17, he had received his diploma from the conservatory in Pesaro. In 1966, Domeniconi left Italy for West Berlin, where he studied composition at the University of Music (later The Berlin University of the Arts). He further worked at the university for 20 years as a professor. Later, Domeniconi visited Turkey and became enamoured with its people and culture. He started the department for guitar studies at the conservatory in Istanbul and developed a compositional style that reflected the regional folk influence. Domeniconi possibly is most well known for his 1985 piece Koyunbaba. The name literally translates as "sheep-father", or "shepherd", but also refers to many other things, including a 13th century mystical saint-like figure whose grave is decorated with coloured bits of cloth by Turkish villagers seeking his help with family problems. "Koyunbaba" is also the family name of his descendants, who still reside in the area, and the name of a wild, dry region of Southwest Turkey. According to local legend, the area is seemingly cursed - numerous people who have attempted to rent or purchase the land from the Koyunbaba family have died or fallen ill. Domeniconi has referred to two specific examples: one was a German woman who wanted to keep the area in its natural and unspoiled state, but was soon stricken with cancer. The other was one of three sons of the Koyunbaba family who suddenly sold some of the land, but then hung himself. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.