Gianni Ventola Danese is one of the best known and most appreciated teachers of diatonic accordion in Europe and in the world, multi-instrumentalist and musical author, always engaged on several musical fronts, and began studying music at the age of five in Turin under the guidance of Maestro Andrea Gallo.
He is the founder and President of the Diatonic Accordion Italian Academy (Accademia del Mantice), an association for the enhancement of the diatonic accordion and its repertoire, and editorial manager of the most important Italian web portal devoted to this instrument (www.organetto.info). He has been invited to hold accordion courses at the most important national and international folk music festivals such as: Tarantella Power, Capodanze, Zingaria Folk Festival, Reno Folk Festival, Gran Bal del Piemont, Garganico Folklore Festival in Rignano. He is the only diatonic accordion player to be invited to hold a specialization course at the prestigious Urbino International Ancient Music Festival. He was invited to the Diatonisch International (first International Festival on the diatonic accordion) held in Gratz in Austria, at the "Trek er Ut" in Holland and at the "Café des Arts" in Paris.
He gave life to the musical projects "FolkDuoLatino", touring the Scandinavian countries with the international folk repertoire in the company of the violinist Marta Herrera Vallejo, "Trio Danese" in the company of the double bass player David Medina and the clarinetist Teresa Spagnolo, and "Duo Danese Davies" in the company of Beatrice Davies. The only Italian diatonic accordion player to be invited to give a concert at the "Le Jours de France" review, the "Week of French culture in Rome" with an all-French repertoire.
First and only diatonic accordion player to have recorded an Argentine tango album in the company of the Italian cellist Daria Rosso Poisa and the Russian Natalia Nazarova, in the music project Historias presented in Paris, St. Petersburg, Bergen (Norway), and in many Italian cities including Turin, Cuneo, Rome, Florence, Siena, Perugia, Bari, Cosenza. Gianni Ventola Danese is still today the only diatonic accordion player that was invited to prform in the most important tango halls in Europe, together with argentinian musician and dancers.
In 2022 he released a project entitled Ennio where for the first time the music of Ennio Morricone is interpreted and elaborated on the diatonic accordion. A tribute to the great Italian composer, where the diatonic accordion soloist interprets and improvises on the melodies that made cinema history.
In 2023, together with the soprano Ekaterina Barinova, he published the album Milodiya - Piccola Antologia Della Canzone Sovietica where the musician not only tackles a repertoire of great Russian authors for the first time but also creates a new arrangement for accordion quartet. The album was selected to compete for the prestigious "Orpheus" Critics Award.
In 2024, Gianni Ventola Danese unveils a groundbreaking musical project that, for the first time ever, blends the unique voice of the Diatonic Accordion with the grandeur of classical music. The album Classico is a world premiere album that reimagines masterpieces from Bach to Shostakovich with philological precision, while unlocking bold, unexplored interpretative possibilities for the instrument. A bold artistic statement that redefines what the diatonic accordion can be.
He has also deepened his activity in composition and arrangement for diatonic accordion, routinely conducting master classes on the subject. His Facebook Page, where he publishes his arrangements for diatonic accordion and where he addresses technical and musical issues is, among soloists of this instrument, the most followed in Italy and one of the most appreciated in the world.
Always committed to promoting a cultured vision of the diatonic accordion that is not relegated exclusively to the folkloric and ethnocoreutical sphere, Gianni Ventola Danese, is the author of the Multimedia Diatonic Accordion Online Course. With the design and realization of this Course he offered for the first time a comprehensive and innovative didactic work that remains today one of the most internationally appreciated teaching methods for those who want to approach this musical instrument or for those who instead want to deepen their musical and performance practice in the professional field.
