The Space between Innocence and Experience
An Interview with the classical guitarist and composer Ganesh Del Vescovo
by Baret Magarian

There's something about the story of Ganesh Del Vescovo's life which comes from the realms of fiction. One could imagine a novelist inventing that life in a narrative which stresses serendipity, vast cultural contrasts and mystical experience. For these are the ingredients of that life. Over the course of several meetings with Del Vescovo I was given a glimpse into the nature of his almost monastic devotion to his art. As a classical guitarist, he has not only mastered his instrument but invented new techniques and even new instruments. As a composer his body of guitar music is notable for its limpid resonance, often creating a feeling of sublime detachment in the listener.
He is now based in Florence though he spent his formative years in an isolated area of the Abruzzo, a region of Italy that was, as he was growing up, the essence of the rustic and rural. There was, as he puts it, nothing there apart from the embrace of magnificent and stark landscapes. "No shops, no TV, no newspapers." He spent his formative years locked in this rural bubble, having no idea of the outside world or of outside culture. At school he played truant, preferring to ramble through the countryside like some Fellinian aberrant. At this time he seems to have developed a dexterity with all things manual, driving a car without a license, working in the fields, learning that his hands were his greatest asset. Then at the age of sixteen he transferred to Rome to live with his aunt, where he chanced upon a guitar with only one string. Something like a revelation took place...continue to read

Ganesh Del Vescovo at Rikhiapeeth
A remarkable experience at the Ashram of Paramahamsa Satyananda in Jharkhand – India in 1997
by Swami Uttarkashi

The episode that I am going to recount represents an important milestone in the long musical history of the guitarist-composer Ganesh Del Vescovo. It happened in Autumn-Winter 1997 in the ashram of Swami Satyananda Saraswati, in the Indian state of Jharkhand.
A huge crowd filled the hall. Everyone was seated on the floor and Swami Satyananda was sitting on a platform at the end of the hall together with Swami Niranjan. We, the Biswas family, had been able to get near to Paramahamsaji and we were sitting at his feet awaiting the satsang which he was scheduled to give. On the other hand Ganesh, who was travelling with us for the celebration of the Sat Chandi Maha Yajna and to see his spiritual master, had remained outside, crouching in a hidden corner near the quiet Christ Kutir to have a nice nap together with his guitar, which he used as a pillow. The trip to Rikhia had been very long and the jet lag had worn him out. But there was one unexpected element which consisted in the voice of authority of his Guru who thundered out through the microphones of the yoga hall, “Where is Ganesh? Where is he with his guitar? I want him here sitting in front of me. Right away, with his guitar!” Anusandhana, who was sitting next to me in the first row suddenly jumped to his feet and had to make a great effort to cross the crowd, which was so anxious to hear what the guru had to say...continue to read

Some words of Alvaro Company – guitarist and composer –
about Ganesh Del Vescovo

For me meeting Ganesh was like meeting a “force of nature”. During the ten years of his studies he showed an uncontrollable thirst for knowledge which could be curbed only by his sacred respect towards his aspiration. He intuitively felt what this final aim was, but it still needed to be discovered and conquered. His creative energy was untiring, supported as it was only by an intuition that there was some kind of truth which he was constantly pursuing.

In time the rough stone which emanated unknown energies, progressively revealed the adamantine form and substance which today make up the strength and luminosity of his temperament as a musician.

Alvaro Company