Artistic Director, Sound Creator, main composer, and founder of Agricantus. Both as Agricantus and as Acquaviva, he has obtained several awards: Tenco Award - Targa Tenco 1996, Augusto Daolio Award 1996, PIM - Italian Music Award 1997, Medal of the City of Palermo '98, Taormina Arts and Sciences Award 1999, the Bodini Award - Culture Mediterranea 2011, and the XXXIII Alessio Di Giovanni 2020 Special Prize - for the elaborations of popular traditions and poetry. Born in Palermo, at the age of 13, he approached music on the ethnic instruments of southern Italy and the Andean Cordillera, from string and wind to percussive. At 18, he started a trip traveling through Europe that brought him to gain mastery of the most popular European musical expressions. In the late '80s, the need to contaminate popular music accompanied the study of dialects considered as sound and writing. He collaborated with various theater companies (Experiment, Figure, Avant-garde Kitonb), developing an interest in composition and rhythm (drums), which leads to the use of digital electronics. He made several CDs, including Tuareg (Agricantus) 1996, Ethnosphere (Agricantus) 2001, Kaleidos (Agricantus) 1998, The Best of Agricantus-emerged in the United States 1999, Luna Khina (Agricantus) 2007, Millennium Klima (Acquaviva) 2009, Kuntarimari (Agricantus) 2013. The French label George V released several of his songs on music compilations: Buddha Bar, Siddhartha, Nirvana Lounge. He participated in the creation of music for the films: "The Turkish Bath" by Ferzan Ozpetek, "The Gardens of Eden" by Alessandro D'Alatri, "Placido Rizzotto" by Pasquale Scimeca, "The Son of the Moon" by Gianfranco Albano, "The Wedding Director" by Marco Bellocchio. In 2007, he composed the music for the film "Liberi di giocare (Free to play)" by Francesco Miccichè, with Pierfrancesco Favino and Isabella Ferrari. In 2010, he composed the music for the film "Luce del Nord" by Stefano Sollima from the TV series Crimini2, for RAI 2. In 1994, the Weltlabyrinth project was born, in which he also collaborated with Rosie Wiederkehr, singer of Agricantus, and he searched for a path and musical experimentation with visual artists. In 1996, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni with CAOS Emilio Leofreddi. In 1998, he co-produced, with Canadian photographer Sheila McKinnon, the CD-ROM Under the Skull, a trip on the manipulation of the human brain by the mass media. In 2009, again with Sheila McKinnon, Tonj Acquaviva composed the music for the video Waiting for Light, presented at the G8 in Syracuse and in 2018 at the Sala del Cenacolo (Chamber of Deputies of Rome). In 1999, he received the prize Taormina Arts and Sciences. In 2000, he composed the soundtrack for Tibet Event (presented in Milan in the presence of the Dalai Lama), published in Ethnosphere 2001. In 2004, he began collaboration with the UN in projects for the preservation of the environment and the Mediterranean, promoting a culture of sustainable development through the creation of movies and documentaries. Topics which he will be a spokesperson for in the Tour Live Weltlabyrinth that was presented in 2006 at the Rome Music Festival, Notte Bianca di Roma, and CousCousFest of San Vito Lo Capo, gathered consensus of critics and the public. In 2008, collaborating with Teresa De Sio for his CD Ridimm Sud, with Unnaddare for the CD Kaissa; currently (2023), he is recording his next work "Carizzi r'amuri Souvenir".