Andy DiGelsomina is an American composer, lead guitarist, songwriter, orchestrator, arranger, blogger, and producer.

Life and career

DiGelsomina was born in Springfield, Ohio. His father was a fan of

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

, while his fraternal grandfather preferred traditional

art music Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJacques Siron, ...

which made both genres very impactful during the composer's early years. Though the music of Elton John and

Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer and conductor known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for five films in the ''Star Trek'' franchise and three in the ''Rambo'' franch ...

started his lifelong love of music, DiGelsomina first aimed at becoming a

fiction writer Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

, shunning high school to earn a college degree at the age of eighteen. It was around that time that he heard the first

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

album and subsequently changed his major to

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

. His time in school was cut short when he abandoned the institutionalized education system and instead became a determined autodidact. His next musical revelation came in the form of the operas of Richard Wagner, which spurred him to study orchestral scores and instruments, greatly expanding his range as a composer. He cites

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

's late-era string quartets as having had a profound effect on his writing during that time as well. DiGelsomina first came to prominence in 2010, upon working with ex-Rainbow vocalist

Graham Bonnet Graham Bonnet (born 23 December 1947) is an English rock singer. He has recorded and performed as a solo artist and as a member of several hard rock and heavy metal bands including Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Alcatrazz, and Impellitteri. ...

for the

Lyraka Lyraka is a multimedia art project. There has been one musical CD released from the project, Lyraka Volume 1, with another in the works. Also in the making is a graphic novel collaboration between the project's original creator, Jasmine Aliara, an ...

album, '' Lyraka Volume 1'', an album he wrote, played lead guitar on, and co-produced. Since then he has recorded with many people in the heavy metal genre, including

Mark Boals Mark Robert Boals (born December 5, 1958) is an American heavy metal vocalist and occasional bassist, best known for his vocals with Yngwie Malmsteen. He is currently a member of the band Foundry. Boals' first album with Malmsteen, 1986's '' ...

Al Atkins Alan John Atkins (born 14 October 1947) is an English people, English Heavy metal music, heavy metal singing, vocalist, best known for being the original lead vocalist and founder of Judas Priest. Biography With a wife and young daughter to sup ...

, and

Veronica Freeman Veronica Freeman (born December 17, 1977), also known by her stage name "The V", is an American singer and the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Benedictum. Her most recent album with Benedictum is '' Obey'', released through Frontiers ...

, among others. In recent years DiGelsomina has reduced his involvement in the Rock genre in favor of writing

Art music Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJacques Siron, ...

for the Symphony

Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

, and related instruments, as well as incorporating

Aleatoric music Aleatoric music (also aleatory music or chance music; from the Latin word ''alea'', meaning "dice") is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the ...

, electronic, avant-garde, and Romantic compositional elements. This has resulted in the release of four symphonies, movements of which are featured on his blog. It was announced May 14, 2020 that DiGelsomina would be returning to the heavy metal genre, working on a solo album entitled "Sic Itur Ad Astra" with ex- Candlemass vocalist Robert Lowe.

Reception

Heavy metal critic

Martin Popoff Martin Popoff (born April 28, 1963) is a Canadian music journalist, critic and author. He is mainly known for writing about the genre of heavy metal music. The senior editor and co-founder of ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'', he has additionall ...

referred to DiGelsomina point blank as a "great songwriter", and

Metal Rules ''Metal Rules'', also known as Metal-Rules, is a heavy metal webzine created by EvilG established in 1995. Based in the province of Newfoundland, Canada, the site was founded with the goal to promote "Real Metal". It is one of the world's larg ...

magazine lauded the compositional style on '' Lyraka Volume 1'', calling it a "type of cross-fertilized metal that...I've never heard before. Bands mixing different styles and influences is nothing new, but Lyraka have really created something special". DiGelsomina refers to this style as "Serial Vignette Composition".

Discography

Lyraka

'' Lyraka Volume 1'' *Released: November 2010 *Label: Mermaid's Song ''Lyraka Volume 2'' *Release: TBA *Label: Mermaid's Song

Andy DiGelsomina

''Symphony no. 1'' *Release: October 2015 *Label: Phoenix Rising ''Symphony no. 2'' *Release: May 2017 *Label: Phoenix Rising ''Symphony no. 3'' *Release: August 2018 *Label: Phoenix Rising ''Symphony no. 4'' *Release: August 2019 *Label: Phoenix Rising

DiGelsomina

''Sic Itur Ad Astra'' *Release: June 2023 *Label: Phoenix Rising

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:DiGelsomina, Andy American male classical composers 21st-century classical composers Living people People from Springfield, Ohio Songwriters from Ohio American heavy metal guitarists Record producers from Ohio 21st-century composers American classical composers Guitarists from Ohio Classical musicians from Ohio Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American male musicians American male songwriters