Luigi Bruti

Background

About Luigi Bruti

Luigi Bruti was born in Montemonaco, Italy, in 1960. A classically trained musician, he earned diplomas in Music Theory, Harmony, Electronic Music, Piano, and Accordion. He studied under Peppino Principe, Bio Boccosi, and Gervasio Marcosignori. In the 1970s, he won national and international accordion competitions, including “Sora” (1976) and “Recanati” (1977). In the late ’70s, he co-founded two pop bands, produced records, and appeared on national TV shows (Domenica In, Disco Ring, Festivalbar). From 1978 to 1980, he worked as a composer and sound designer for film soundtracks, including Passion of Love by Ettore Scola, co-written with Armando Trovajoli. In 1980, he joined SIEL, later Roland Europe. He served as Music Consultant, Head of Music Division, R&D Director, and Marketing Director. He designed the arranger keyboard line, developed entire musical ecosystems, authored sound content, and registered multiple international patents. Since the early ’90s, Bruti envisioned a digital accordion. After years of persistence, Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi approved the concept in 1995. Bruti created the platform and sound libraries, leading to the 2004 launch of the Roland FR-7 V-Accordion, unveiled at Musikmesse Frankfurt along with his experimental album Garage Tango. He presented the instrument worldwide, including to Cirque du Soleil musicians in Las Vegas, Macau, and Toronto. The V-Accordion appeared in MIT’s Computer Music Journal, and in 2013 became the first digital instrument included in the Moscow Conservatory’s curriculum. In 2007, he launched the V-Accordion Festival, serving as artistic director for multiple editions. He led the development of follow-up models (FR-1x, FR-18d, FR-8x), introducing innovations like proportional bellows and acoustic behavior modeling. He also released the album Queen of Sea on iTunes. Following the closure of Roland Europe in 2014, he built a team to develop T2L (True to Life) for digital pianos and HPF (Harmony Poly-Fragmentor) for XMURE, the world’s first iOS app with real-time audio accompaniment. These technologies led to the birth of DEXIBELL, launched at NAMM 2016. From 2021 to 2024, Bruti led a major collaboration between Dexibell and KORG Japan, creating the FISA SUPREMA — the first digital accordion by KORG. Featuring advanced sensors, full MIDI/digital integration, and sound library customization, it represents a new standard in expressive digital instruments.