Claudio Catalano
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Claudio Catalano (born in the 1960s) is an Italian tenor and member of the classical crossover vocal group Andiamo.
[edit] Biography
Catalano was born in Naples, Italy, and grew up in Tuscany. However, it was not his singing talents that first brought him to the attention of the Italian public, but his capacity at soccer. He was studying to become a surveyor while playing as a midfielder on a major league soccer team. After retiring from sports, he became a real estate agent.
Although Catalano had always been a music fan, he had never contemplated a career as a vocalist until he was asked to entertain while on vacation in Greece. He was so well received by the audience that he began to look in newspaper ads for a vocal coach. "I fell into very, very good hands," he says. He worked years on perfecting his natural singing talent, and during that time felt an increasing urge to move away from pop music and start performing in a more classical style. When he competed in pop vocal contests, he started to sing the songs in a crossover style - and the audiences loved it. "That is when I began to smell blood," says Catalano.
He finally made a leap forward in 1992, when he won an Italian television singing contest. He was then frequently asked to perform on a popular Italian television show, Toto Cutugno. His vocal coach pressured him to try opera, but Catalano wanted to continue in classical crossover. However, he finally conceded, and was pleasantly surprised to find that he loved Tosca, the first opera he learned. Since 2001 he has performed a variety of parts in both traditional and modern operas at well-known locations around Italy.
Now, as a member of Andiamo, Catalano has finally fulfilled his dream of singing popera music. The group's first album, Love, From Italy, was realeased in the United States on April 3, 2007.
[edit] References
- http://www.denonclassics.com/sites/denon/dcNews/andiamo1.asp
- http://pressroom.pbs.org/documents/andiamo.doc
