Simone Pansolin is an italian musician and poet.
Originally a classical guitarist, Simone has been specialising in the performance practice of lute, early guitars and theorbo, taking part in study seminars in Venice and Pavia with the master M. Lonardi. Over time, he further narrowed down his activity to the performance of the baroque repertoire, devoting himself in particular to the Italian music of the period.
Pansolin’s releases focus on the latest lute and baroque guitar tablature pieces published in Italy: Sonate d’Intavolatura di Leuto (Da Vinci Classics Ed., 2021), a monographic album featuring the valuable work for archlute by Giovanni Zamboni and Sonatas for Baroque Guitar (Da Vinci Classics Ed., 2024), which includes the wonderful music by Bergamo composer Ludovico Roncalli.
He has performed on various radio stations, including RAI Radio 3 - Piazza Verdi, Radio Radicale, Radio Libertà - L’Angolo della Musica Classica.
Simone has been highly recommended and praised by some of the most famous music print titles such as Amadeus, Rekodo Geijutsu, Il Fronimo, Musica, Lute News and Hispanica Lyra, receiving extremely positive reviews: «An instrumental mastery of absolute importance, which is punctually matched by a coherent and never “over the top” interpretative vision.» (G. Odero, “Il Fronimo”); «Wonderful and amazingly played music» (G. Schamp, “De Belgische Luitacademie”); «A dreamy, poetic and meditative album.» (M. Riboni, “Amadeus”); «Simone Pansolin gives these sonatas a wonderful, twinkling quality which makes them jewel-like.» (B. Winkler, “SWR”); «Pansolin plays masterfully. […] I feel Zamboni would be pleased.» (C. J. Arbuthnott, “The Lute Society”).
In 2022 he was awarded the prize “Giorgio Ferraris” for music.
Pansolin regularly works with lutenists Massimo Lonardi and Davide Mocini.
For many years now, he has dedicated himself to the study of haiku poetry, delving into the characteristics of modern haiku, a current of thought which, starting from the beginning of the 20th century, has aimed at opening up the traditional haiku to new social and cultural issues. In 2021, he published the collection of poems Pixels with the American publishing house Red Moon Press, which contains 70 free-form haiku. The following year Japan Universal Poets Association (JUNPA) published Duet of Black, written by Pansolin and H. Namino, which contains a selection of his works translated into Japanese.
With a huge interest in photography, Pansolin also creates haiga (the art form wich combine haiku and images) while incorporating his interest in graphic design. Pansolin’s entirely original haiga are published in the Haiga Gallery of The Haiku Foundation.
Due to an affinity in artistic temperaments with Pansolin, two classical music composers published a series of pieces based on poems from his book Pixels. Specifically, they included 12 pieces by S. Fontanelli (“5 haiku” for different tipes of flute, “4 Haiku Against the War” for violin, “3 haiku Against the War” for guitar) and a triptych for female choir by S. Montalto, also called “Pixels”.
He has presented his works at many exhibitions, including the Haiku Life (The Haiku Foundation), Bologna in Lettere, Poetry on the Lake International Celebration, the International Poetry Festival of Trieste and Una Scontrosa Grazia. He has also been a guest on various radio programmes, including Radio Canale Italia - Story Time, Poesia e Musica Italiana, Radio Poeticare.
Having been translated into English, Russian, Japanese, Indian Malayalam and Spanish, Pansolin’s work has been included in national and international literary magazines, both on paper and digital, such as WTPLive (India), English Literature (Иностранная литература, Russia), La Clessidra (Italy).
Critics say of him: «The beauty of Pixel is this and more: it’s an inextinguishable source of gems which are rare in their originality.» (P. Martino, “La Clessidra”); «Compositions too beautiful, of terrible truth, to make you shiver.» (F. Russo, “Culture and Perspectives”); «Pixels is a collection of precious poetic gemstones that come together as if encrusted on a royal jewel one after the other and page after page.» (A. Sacco, "Poesia del Nostro Tempo").
Translations by Manuela Calascibetta
