Gilberto Grazio – heir to the dynasty of Portuguese guitar builders, who began to practice this art at the age of 12 with his father João Pedro Grazio Junior – coordinated the workshop for the manufacture of stringed musical instruments in Carnasid, in the municipality of Oeiras, in order to pass on his knowledge to the younger generation, in addition to his workshop in Kasena, municipality of Sintra.
Self-taught Gilberto Grazio studied while working in his father’s workshop. At the age of 17, he completely built his first instrument – the viola, which he carried with him all his life.
His passion for fado began in childhood, at the age of six, when he attended a session at the Adega do Ramalho in Casena, where the guitarist José Antonio Sabrosa (1915-1987), husband of the fado singer Maria Teresa de Noronha (1918-1993), played. .).
Gilberto Grazio has been named “the oldest and most famous guitar maker,” according to the Portuguese Association of Friends of Fado, which noted him as “partner merit” in the 1st decade of this century. In 2012, the Lisbon City Council awarded him the Municipal Medal of Merit for Gold.
In October 2002, Gilberto Grazio was awarded the Order of Merit by the President of the Republic, Jorge Sampaio.
Musicians with whom he collaborated included Luis Guerreiro, Antonio Chinho, Takashi Juasa, Rui Veloso, Fausto, Paco Bandeira, Paulo de Carvalho, Sergio Godinho and Carlos Paredes.
As the guitar master said in an interview with Lusa, the collaboration between Gilberto Grazio and Carlos Paredes (1925-2004) was very close and as a result of this exchange a new cordophone was created, the gitolan, presented in June 2005. guitar, but larger, the guitar is assembled with six orders of double strings, like the Portuguese guitar.
