About myself

Francesco Bettoni is an Italian acoustic guitarist, performer and arranger who has been interested in traditional Irish music since he was twenty years old.

He was born and grew up in the beautiful region of Brescia, Italy in 1978. Here he started his musical journey in a traditional way: taking piano and drum lessons from the age of 8. It was only at the age of fifteen that he picked up his brother's electric guitar. He studied privately for the first two years, but at eighteen he attended Brescia's Conservatory of Music, where he studied classical guitar. Highly inspired by the style of Michael Hedges, Alex de Grassi and John Renbourn, he then turned his efforts into acoustic fingerstyle, which he has now studied for many years.

At the same time, he grew a passion for traditional Irish music. At the age of twenty four he moved to Ireland. He played in a lot of music sessions in Galway (where he regularly visits), in Co. Clare and Co. Donegal, with both local and famous artists such as Arty McGlynn, Ed Boyd, Paul Kelly.

Now Francesco is a member of Inisfail, a successful traditional Irish music band in Italy. Francesco performs at all the largest traditional music festivals around Italy, Switzerland and France, having the chance to share the stage with bands like Dervish, Altan, TriYann, Cara Dillon, Fine Friday, Hevia, Alan Kelly Quartet and Grada.