Buonomo was born in
Naples in December 1932. In the preface to his biography, he said that "Being born into a family of musicians doesn't give you much choice". The fifth of ten children, he began studying music before he even knew how to read or write. He was already performing at the age of 12 (as a conservatory student), playing the trumpet and drums with his father in many
nightclubs in
Naples in front of an audience of American soldiers from the
Allied Forces. A career that was built on “coming up through the ranks” and playing just about any musical genre, from
popular music and marching bands to jazz and
contemporary music. "His career is immense and he has come a long way" as
Il Centro (Abruzzo's newspaper) wrote. He was director of one of the first contemporary rhythmic music bands and professor at the conservatories
N.Piccinni in Bari,
S.Pietro a Majella in Naples, Luisa D'Annunzio in Pescara and Santa Cecilia in Rome. His
didactic works were used as exams in national and international competitions and were adopted by high musical culture institutions in Italy and abroad. He held
seminars and specialization courses on an international level, training an entire generation of musicians with his method that are now featured soloists in illustrious orchestras and
conservatory professors. Buonomo is credited with being the first in Italy to prove that percussion instruments had a life of their own, since they include all parameters of the triple music root:
rhythm,
melody and
harmony. So, these instruments were not (as many people used to think) a rhythm section to accompany other instruments or to simulate weather phenomena such as thunders or storms. He continued his cultural operation until percussion courses were established inside Italian conservatories. He carried it out by writing ad hoc compositions and participating in radio and TV programs, as well as by playing pieces for percussion, that had never been performed in Italy, during the concerts he conducted. Having achieved great success among young people through daily concerts that were even held in schools (from middle schools to universities), in 1975 he
recorded the first classical, pop and contemporary all-percussion Italian music record in which he gathered the outcome of his studies and ideas. He became much more popular as his artistic commitment grew, of course. Italy's most influential newspaper, the
Corriere della Sera, printed the following in November 1987: “He is a real authority on rhythm: as an internationally known percussionist and virtuoso, Antonio Buonomo is a versatile and passionate teacher who has published many works on his favorite subject, from pure percussion technique and rhythm perspectives.” The most significant steps of his career, during which he knew and collaborated with music legends like
Stravinsky,
Hindemith and others, can be summarized as follows: • he participated in major European festivals, like the International Contemporary Music Festival at the
Venice Biennial (1960/61) and the
Edinburgh International Festival (1963); • he participated in the Italy on Stage in New York City with
Irene Papas (1986); • solo performances of
contemporary music premiered in Italy; • tours outside of Europe. In 1983, the Minister of Public Education invited him to be part of the commission that drafted the program for percussion and
solfège study for percussionists; he was called by the
Opera Theatre in Rome during the
Jubilee year to act as assistant conductor and music consultant, contributing to the creation of the Missa Solemnis pro Jubileo, by
Franco Mannino, which had its world premiere at the
Colosseum. His debut as author, together with his brother Aldo, dates back to 1965 with L’arte della percussione (The art of the percussion): the first European treatise, in three volumes (with guiding records) on classical, jazz and African-Latin-American percussion. It was a huge international success and probably the first time that an American publisher (Leeds Music Corporation in New York) showed an interest in Italian didactic books, requesting editor Suvini-Zerboni they be translated into English. Buonomo died on 23 November 2025. ==Books==