Biography
William Stravato began playing guitar at the age of fourteen as a self-taught musician. He recognizes Jimy Hendrix and Jeff Beck as his main early influences.
His experience as a guitarist developed when he was the leader of rock and blues oriented cover bands playing in bars and niteclubs around Rome. His first professional experience came as a result of being a studio and live session-man for italian artists which allowed him to tour all over Europe and the United States.
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During his career as a session-man, he never neglected studying guitar in all its aspects: technical, harmonic, and melodic. William believes the guitar is an instrument with still unexplored possibilities.
At the age of eighteen he discovered the music of Weather Report, Chick Corea, Jean-Luc Ponty and most of all Allan Holdsworth whose style pointed him in a new musical direction. However, he never stopped appreciating the old and new rock players such as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, just to name a few.
In 1997 he decided to leave his home town to attend the world renowned Guitar Institute of Technology of Hollywood where he studied with Scott Henderson, Mike Miller, Brett Garsed, T.J. Helmerich, Joey Tafolla and many others.
When he returned from the U.S. he started recording his debut solo album called "Survivor" featuring two world renowned guitarist: Brett Garsed and Michael Angelo. The album includes collaboration with Prashant Aswani a young talented guitar player produced by Greg Howe.
After two years spent teaching in clinics all over Europe, William has released new solo album called "Cybertones".
William is a columnist in "AXE" magazine, currently teaching private and public classes.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.