Carlo Domeniconi

One of the works inspired by Turkish music, the Koyunbaba suite of 1985–86, eventually became Domeniconi's most well-known work. Throughout the 1990s it was particularly frequently programmed in concerts and recorded by numerous performers. The piece is named after a Turkish saint Koyunbaba. The liner notes to a recording made by Domeniconi in 1991 for a Turkish record label state that the work is a suite pastorale, describing "the natural beauty of a little bay" overlooking the Aegean Sea, where the saint was said to live centuries ago.

Domeniconi was born in Cesena, Italy. He received his first formal guitar lessons in 1960 from Carmen Lenzi Mozzani, granddaughter of the famous guitarist and luthier Luigi Mozzani. Making rapid progress, he won first prizes at the Ancona International Festival of Guitar in 1960 and 1962. After obtaining his diploma from the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro, Domeniconi left Italy for West Berlin, where he studied composition at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik under Heinz Friedrich Hartig. Upon graduation in 1969, Domeniconi took up a teaching position in Berlin, which he held until 1992. Already in the 1960s, Domeniconi became interested in Turkish music traditions, which he studied in situ in 1977–1980, establishing and heading the first classical guitar course at the Istanbul University State Conservatory, and on many shorter trips he took to Istanbul.

Carlo Domeniconi (born 20 February 1947) is an Italian guitarist and composer. Although his compositions include a wide variety of genres and instrumentation choices, he is best known for his works for solo guitar, and particularly the Koyunbaba suite. Domeniconi's style is characterized by his adoption of multicultural influences. His works explore and borrow from a wide variety of national traditions, including Turkish, Indian, Brazilian, and many more.