Virgilio Savona - Biography

Biography

Antonio Savona was born at Palermo, Italy. His artistic career had a very early start. In 1926, aged 6, he began studying music. Two years later he joined a choir and at the age of 10 he debuted in a radio broadcast playing a piece on a piano during a children's program.

After high-school, Savona enrolled at the Saint Cecilia's Conservatory in Rome to study piano.

In 1941 he replaced Iacopo Jacomelli in a vocal quartet called Quartetto Egie. The group changed name to Quartetto Ritmo at first, then to Quartetto Cetra one year later.

On 19 August 1944 Virgilio Savona married the singer Lucia Mannucci, who later joined Quartetto Cetra to replace Enrico De Angelis who left the group in 1947.

Besides singing, Savona was the group's composer and arranger. He wrote the music while Tata Giacobetti, also a member of the quartet, wrote the lyrics. They worked together for four decades and produced hundreds of songs which made up Quartetto Cetra's vast repertoire.

Savona also composed music and wrote scripts for radio and TV programs, stage shows and movies. During 1970s he was quite active as pianist, orchestra conductor, arranger and producer. He also made extensive research on folk songs. In 1971 he writes Angela, a song for Angela Davis, afroamerican communist leader, innocent in prison at this time. In 70s he published also other controversial songs, as Il testamento del parroco Meslier ("The Testament of Parson Meslier"), a violent attack to power and religion, based on the Testament of the priest and illuminist atheist philosopher Jean Meslier.

In 1991 he wrote an Popup Book about Quartetto Cetra, published by Sperling & Kupfer in the Supersound collection.

He died in 2009 from complications of the Parkinson's disease.