The ESC (European Summer Campus), starts in 2006 from an idea of the guitarist, composer and teacher Andrea Quartarone who is the President of the event. The main goal was to create a full weekend experience with some of the most important guitarists in the world from which to learn their instrumental technique, their improvisation and composition strategies, their experience and a whole series of tips and topics that it would never have been possible to learn from videos or clinics of much shorter duration.
All participants has a great experience of 4 extraordinary days from the first morning of each day until the evening above all the artistic and cultural ferment of the city of Syracuse, a very popular tourist destination every year, also thanks to the month of August which sees a series of activities with which is easily possible, for non-residents, to be able to organize a real holidays plan in the days before or after the ESC.
Syracuse, like all Sicily, between the sea, archaeological parks, museums, exhibitions, concerts and restaurants of the highest gastronomic quality, is the perfect location for an educational and didactic event of great importance such as the ESC.
It is not easy to talk about the European Summer Campus and summarize what it was possible to experience in previous editions thanks to the didactic, exponential and human contribution of great guitarists such as: Robben Ford, Paul Gilbert, Guthrie Govan, Richard Hallebeek, Allan Holdsworth, Greg Howe, Greg Koch, Kiko Loureiro, Kee Marcello, Richard Smith, Andy Timmons and Carl Verheyen as well as the double bass player and teacher Andrea Avena who teach with Theory, Harmony and Ear Training subjects, creating a valid theoretical support to the various teachers who followed each other in each edition.
The realization of the ESC was possible thanks to the organizational work of the Staff who, in addition to assisting the various lessons of the teachers every day, also took care of the constant editing of photographic and video contents and above all of educational contents that were then part of special and focus within prestigious national and international magazines specialized in the guitar area. For example the Italian well-known AXE Magazine dedicated 5 times a “special focus”, with educational insights, aimed at the ESC and that 4 times it dedicated the cover of the magazine to our Campus, given the high importance of the participating artists.
Among all the essential aspects of the ESC experience, we cannot fail to mention also the IGJ (International Guitar Jam), a “satellite” event of the Campus where the artists play together in a Jam, an experience that is more unique than rare being in the most of the cases of artists coming from various parts of the world and who probably would never have been able to play together in their lives. The IGJ of 2007 (Govan-Timmons-Verheyen) and 2008 (Ford-Govan-Koch) was memorable.
Partner that has always accompanied all editions of the ESC has been Birdland, the historic music library in Milan that has always been managed with professionalism and passion by Maria Angela Filiberti.
After 10 years of time compared to the last edition of 2011, the ESC (European Summer Campus), thanks to the experience gained in the field with hundreds of students from all over the world (England, France, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Holland, Japan and other states) is ready to organize a new 2021 event, this time virtual and online, in consideration of the current anti Covid regulations that prohibit gatherings and live events, with 4 artists of extraordinary artistic and educational level: Martin Miller, Andre Nieri, Andrea Quartarone and Mika Tyyskā.
