Of Italian origin, though French by adoption, Armando GHIDONI brings together in his music the spirits of both Italy and France. In the songs of this eclectic composer one finds sensitivity and the bel canto tradition, while his harmonic writing evokes both an impressionism à la française and jazz rhythms, features that lend his works a unique and highly personal character. Honorary President of the Olivier Messiaen Music School in Nantes, Armando Ghidoni is intensely active as a composer, and his catalogue includes many instrumental scores that are regularly chosen as set pieces in leading national and international competitions, as well as chamber music, sacred music, incidental music and an opera that has been played throughout the world. His Badaluk-Concerto for wind quintet and his Adagio for flute and harp (or piano) received an Honorable Mention from the American National Flute Association. The 12th Picardy European Music Competition, devoted to the saxophone, has been dedicated to him as the ‘Armando Ghidoni Competition’, and a hall in the Municipal Music School of Lencloître (France) today bears his name. Since 1989 Armando Ghidoni has been published exclusively by Éditions Alphonse Leduc in Paris.