
Valerio Sannicandro
Valerio Sannicandro
Valerio Sannicandro, composer, conductor and researcher (b. 1971 in Italy) studied in Germany (York Höller, Hans Zender, Peter Eötvös) and France (Emmanuel Nunes) and obtained a PhD in musicology in Berlin (Technical University). His musical output ranges from solo works to large orchestral works, also with voices, and music theater with extensive use of live electronics. His recent projects include Spells and Finesterrae with the Neue Vocalsolisten, Garth Knox and the SWR Experimental Studio, Ius Lucis (2006/2007), for two ensembles in two music halls commissioned by the Centre Pompidou-Paris), Forces Motrices for orchestra and live electronics, and A Book of Waves for GRM (Radio France, Paris).
Valerio Sannicandro was Affiliated Fellow (AAR 2013), Artist-in-Residence at Villa Kujoyama (Kyoto, Japan) and received several prizes (Claudio Abbado Composition Prize of the Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, Musica Viva Munich 2002 and 2010, Kranichsteiner Music Prize 2000). In 2020 he started a composition mentoring program for young composer:s. His works are published by Edizioni Suvini-Zerboni (Milan).
It is hardly possible to put this into words–but without hesitation I can say that the origins of my music are deeply connected to the idea of space. Beyond any phenomenological or purely intuitive meanings, space and spatiality represent musical aspects that I have been exploring since at least 2003, and whose powerful poetry continues to exert a strong influence on my musical thinking. My curiosity about the close interaction between acoustic instruments and live electronics brought me to some of the most interesting institutions in Europe (IRCAM, SWR Experimentalstudio Freiburg, ZKM Karlsruhe, GRM Paris, ICST Zurich). I met dedicated people there, with whose help I was able to gain valuable experiences for which I will always be grateful. Because later I transferred many achievements from the practice of electronic music into my own musical vocabulary. I have conceived works for various spaces along the way, instrumental and vocal works based on specific space-related musical figures.
Valerio Sannicandro
