Massimo Laguardia

From an early age, he developed a passion for popular music. First he studied Latin American culture and music, and later he focused his attention on the study of popular music from Southern Italy. After his debut with the band Agricantus, in the early 80s, he met Alfio Antico, who helped him discover his passion for the drum. He then deepened his studies on this instrument, which signed his whole musical career. In 1992 he created the band TAMMORRA with which he had an intense concert activity in Italy and Europe and made two CDs.

From 1995 to 1998 he took part in the prestigious Sicilian group Taberna Mylaensis of Milazzo, with which he made two CDs and several tours in Europe.

Since 1999 he has been a teacher in drums and “tammorre” in Italy and Europe.

He is among the founders of the project Asteriskos, (2000 – 2006) with which he made two CDs. Currently, he is involved with different formations with which he focuses on different aspects of popular music, especially with the band Antura. In 2003, he was invited as a guest in the Sicilian tour of the band INTI-ILLIMANI.

In 2005, he played the role, as actor-musician, of Mangiapane in the movie “Nuovomondo

- The Golden Door” by Emanuele Crialese, which won the Golden Lion at the 63rd Venice Film Festival and was candidate for the Oscar.

In 2006, he formed the group “Millenaria Tammura - Banda di Tammorre” with some of his students and became its artistic director. He was the guest for the project “Alavò” by Etta Scollo at Kals Art 2006, and later for the singer Z-Star.

In 2007, he participated, for the UNESCO, at the World Poetry Day in Palma di Montechiaro and presented his new CD "Cuoretamburo" at the Vucciria Festival in Palermo, the Marranzano Festival and the Art and Jazz Cafè in Catania and at the Basula Fest (CT). He was part of the Festival Teatri di Pietra in Grosseto. He was invited as a guest for the concert of Ambrogio Sparagna in Palermo and played at the tribute concert to Rosa Balistreri accompanying singers as Fausta Vetere, Clara Murtas and Lucilla Galeazzi.

From 2007 to 2010 he was part of the prestigious Orchestra Popolare Italiana of Ambrogio Sparagna.

Since 2011 he teaches as a professor at the Ateliers d'Ethnomusicologie (ADEM) and from 2023 also at Haute École de Musique (HEM) in Geneva.

It is thanks to his voice that he expresses best the vitality of the popular soul, through songs accompanied by the “tammorre” he builts himself.

Languages : French, Italien