Roberto Ruscitti.
Musician - Composer
Musician - Composer
The soul of Roberto Ruscitti (1941 - 2014) was stretched by the pull of opposites—opposite tastes, yearnings, and loyalties. It was this very struggle that gives his music great meaning. In his concerts, he revealed his soul. In his compositions he surrendered it to us. Enormously gifted, he was a consummate artist with an unmistakable style. Through him, the joropo and the Venezuelan waltz demand a prominent position in the vast world of music. And what to say about Venezuela's second national anthem Alma Llanera ? For his tireless endeavors, on several occasions he received the "Premio Nacional de Música Clásica de Venezuela" and the "Copa Presidente de la República 'Raul Leoni'".
A true virtuoso on the pianoforte, the dexterity of his hands combined with a great passion as interpreter, for instance in the Venezuelan joropo El Diablo Suelto made him difficult to equal.
As a composer Roberto Ruscitti surprised and garnered admiration, just listen to his Madrugada Llanera or El Ruiseñor , and you will agree. Magical music never leaves the memory. Rather, it makes us dream.
What a man can be, he must be. Roberto Ruscitti was a consumate musician ... let him therefore speak through his music.
Several months before the marriage of her daughter, Roberto's sister, Ivana complained that at weddings in Canada they were hardly playing any good old-fashioned Italian dance music anymore. So Roberto decided to surprise her and the rest of the family. He secretly recorded a CD which, the morning of the wedding, he put in the kitchen's cd-player. Then he pushed play, and innocently got engrossed in some home-made salami.
Upon entering the kitchen, Ivana stopped in her tracks, and with an enchanted look on her face, she turned to Roberto, and said: "Sci tu, vero?" (This is yours, isn't it?).
It was a few years after Roberto aided his friend, Venezuelan tenor Carlos Almenar Otero, with the reording of "Meditación Latinoamericana" when he felt he wanted to record a CD featuring 5 compositions of his hand and 5 covers of well-known Venezuelan folksongs. A grateful fan later wrote about "Ensueño," "If anyone wished to give his soul an angelic birthday gift, Roberto Ruscitti would be the gift. What a wonderful collection of adorable music. Thank you Roberto. Your music is going to recharge me every day. This is a gift that will not stop giving."
Shortly after his return to recording and performing, Roberto took on a much more ambitious project which he called "Mi Mundo". In it he brought to bear a number of Latin rhythms and genres which not only show his range and mastery as a composer and performer, but also his humor, his joy, and his heart.
Finally, after the success of his "Italian" venture "Gocce d'Oro", Roberto decided he wanted to record his arrangements of popular Venezuelan songs on the accordion. From the moment he'd liberated the instrument from his brother Donato, so many years before, he became convinced of the beauty of its sound for melodies traditionally played on instruments like the Venezuelan harp, the cuatro and a variety of percussion instruments, together with a guitar or a bass. So he dedicated much of his life to putting this theory to the test with this delightful results.
Roberto passed away in 2014 while touring Argentina, leaving his last project "Drops of Gold" almost finished in the hands of his sound engineer and arranger. He had high hopes for this CD with famous melodies from all over the world.
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