Francesco Teopini Terzetti Casagrande

I am a professional classical guitarist, international recording artist, music educator, and musicologist currently residing in Hong Kong. I am a graduate in guitar performance from both the Conservatorio “G. B. Martini” (Bologna) and the Royal Academy of Music (London). I am also a graduate from the Hong Kong Baptist University, where I completed a PhD in historical musicology as a recipient of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme.

Besides being a seasoned teacher of classical guitar performance with 23 years of professionalism in the field (I taught guitar to students from beginner to advanced level, including some prize winners), for about eight years I was a university teacher at HKBU, first as a graduate teaching assistant and then as a lecturer. Courses of mine as a HKBU lecturer included one course about research methods for performing artists, named “Research Method for Performers”, and two music history courses titled “From Bach to Brahms” and “Masterpieces of Western Music Literature”. My courses from my time as a graduate teaching assistant comprised two on history of opera and orchestral music, respectively named “Three Bad Guys: Don Giovanni, Otello, and Peter Grimes” and “The Orchestra: 1800-1900”, one on piano romantic music of the 19th century, called “Piano Music, Pianists, and Pianos in the Romantic Era”, and also one about popular music of the 20th century, i.e. “Jazz, Blues, and Broadway”. My overall experience as a musician encompasses not only classical but also popular music. For this reason, as of November 2020 I am an international examiner in Hong Kong and Mainland China for RSL Awards, a UK-based examination board providing graded music exams for contemporary jazz, rock, and pop performing artists all around the world; lately, RSL Awards also launched their classical syllabus for piano, violin, classical guitar and woodwinds, called RSL Classical, for which I am also one of their few selected examiners.

My teaching style is warm, engaging, and focused on discovery.  Whether we are deconstructing a 19th-century opera or mastering a complex guitar etude, I create a supportive environment where we 'look under the hood' of the music to understand how it actually works.