Gaetano Simone
Cello and Viola da Gamba player, is the co-founder of Trio Gioconda de Vito (stable ensamble of Paolo Grassi Foundation in Martina Franca) and of the Modus String Quartet (stable group of the Traetta Theater in Bitonto) , with whom he regularly performs in Italy and abroad.

He studied cello with Maestro Saverio Loiacono and also with the Maestri: Harvey Shapiro, Enrico Bronzi, Vito Paternoster, Francesco Pepicelli, Enrico Dindo, Massimo Macrì, Ivan Monighetti, Massimo Polidori, Nicola Fiorino, Tamas Varga, Olaf Maninger, Arto Noras , Antonio Meneses, Wolfgang Boettcher, Wen-sin Yang.

He studied Viola da Gamba with Maestri Paolo Pandolfo, Amélie Chemin, Vittorio Ghielmi and Sofia Ruffino.

His chamber music activity includes titles like Philip Trajetta's String Quartets, A. Rendano's Quintetto for strings and piano, O. Messiaen's "Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps", "Drei Kleine Stucke" for cello and piano by A.Webern.

Reaserching in historically practice of cello, in 2015 he released the CD "Le Muse Napolitane", a historical research in the 18th century Neapolitan repertoire for his instrument.

The activity and didactic research sees him intensely engaged in regular courses and international master classes with numerous students in order to spread the enthusiasm for music and cello among young people. He is the Artistic Director of Premio Loiacono - a humanistic cello prize, since 2018. ​

In 2017 he won the the competition for cello and ensemble music for teaching at musical high schools of Puglia with the highest score in national level. Nowadays he teaches cello at "Istituto Comprensivo Gallo-Positano” in Noci (Bari). ​

He plays a splendid Italian instrument from the 1700s attributed to David Tecchler and a fine Thielke model viola da gamba built by Sergio Gistri.