Federico Monti Arduini (born 1 December 1940), best known as Il Guardiano del Faro, is an Italian composer, producer and musician. Born in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, Arduini was a

child prodigy A child prodigy is defined in psychology research literature as a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to young people who are extraor ...

, who started studying piano at very young age and who made his first concerts aged eight years old.Ruberto Ruggeri; Lalla Cantore. "Guardiano del Faro, Il". Gino Castaldo (edited by). ''Dizionario della canzone italiana''. Curcio Editore, 1990. pp. 814-5. In 1957 he started composing songs, often being credited as Arfemo, and his collaborations included Mina, Gigliola Cinquetti, Frankie Avalon,

Giorgio Gaber Giorgio Gaber (), byname of Giorgio Gaberscik (25 January 1939 – 1 January 2003), was an Italian singer, composer, actor, and playwright. He was also an accomplished guitar player and author of one of the first rock songs in Italian ("Ciao ti ...

, Santo & Johnny and

Orietta Berti Orietta Berti (born Orietta Galimberti on 1 June 1943) is an Italian pop-folk singer and television personality. Biography Born in Cavriago, Berti began her career in 1962 and had her first success in 1965 with the song "Tu sei quello" (You ...

. In 1967 he became general manager of Ricordi. In the early 1970s Arduini adopted the stage name "Il Guardiano del Faro" (i.e. "The Lighthousekeeper") and was among the first musicians experimenting with the use of

moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

through a series of best-selling instrumental songs. Notably, his debut single "Il gabbiano infelice" (an electronic adaption of " Amazing Grace") sold over 700,000 copies while his song "Amore grande, amore libero" won the 1975

Un disco per l'estate Un disco per l'estate (translation "A Record for the Summer") was an Italian Summer festival held from 1964 to 2003. It was organized and sponsored by the Italian record industry association, AFI, and by RAI, except for the editions between 1995 ...

contest and sold over 3 million copies. In 1976 Arduini opened a recording studio in

Porto Santo Stefano Porto Santo Stefano () is a seaport town on the west coast of Italy, in the municipality of Monte Argentario, in the Province of Grosseto, Tuscany. It is the municipal seat of Monte Argentario and one of the two major towns that form the township ...

, and in the later years he collaborated with several labels as an arranger.

References

External links

Il Guardiano del Faro
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

* * 1940 births Italian composers Musicians from Milan Living people Italian songwriters Male songwriters {{Italy-music-bio-stub