De Gemini, known as the “Harmonica Man”, was born in
Ferrara in September 1928. He spent his childhood in Turin, where he learned to
play in the orchestras of the city. He became interested in the harmonica in
the second half of the 1940s. In 1953 he started recording for several major
film scores. The first was “Bread, Love and Dreams” by Alessandro Cicognini
(directed by Luigi Comencini). About 800 more scores for film and TV would
follow in the next decades. Franco’s harmonica can be heard on dozens of
Euro-westerns.During his career as a musician De Gemini played with all the great Italian composers: Ennio Morricone, Francesco De Masi, Piero Piccioni, Nicola Piovani, Armando Trovajoli, Riz Ortolani, Piero Umiliani, Franco Micalizzi and many others. De Gemini also composed some music of his own and founded BEAT Records in 1968 and published his autobiography “From Beat to Beat” in 2007.
Franco died on July 20, 2013 in Rome, Italy. Today we remember Franco De Gemini on what would have been his 85th birthday.
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