Michael Felberbaum

An Italian‑American guitarist born in Rome, Michael Felberbaum trained early on in the city's jazz clubs, giving his first concerts as a teenager. At eighteen he moved to the United States, sharing the stage with musicians such as Roy Hargrove, Joshua Redman and Frank Lacy, and occasionally collaborating with the poet Allen Ginsberg, while studying composition and arranging at the Berklee College of Music, from which he graduated. Later based in France, Michael Felberbaum became part of the European jazz scene and pursued numerous projects as a guitarist, composer and arranger, working notably with Marc Copland, Johnny Griffin, Steve Lehman, Stefano Di Battista and Lee Konitz, as well as within various ensembles and orchestras. At the same time he developed his own groups, from the trio 3 Elements — with cellist Dimos Goudaroulis and drummer John Betsch — to a duo with trombonist Daniel Casimir, and he composes for a range of jazz formations. His music is rooted in contemporary jazz informed by the American legacy and receptive to European approaches, where improvisation, harmonic work and the balance between melody and abstraction occupy a central place.