, on April 4, 1947) is an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 composer of contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...

.

Biography

In his youth, Sciarrino was attracted to the visual arts, but began experimenting with music when he was twelve. Though he had some lessons from Antonino Titone and Turi Belfiore, he is primarily self-taught as a composer. In 1969 he moved to Rome, where he attended Franco Evangelisti's course in electronic music at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Osmond-Smith 2001).

In 1977, Sciarrino moved from Rome to Milan, where he taught at the conservatory until 1982. By this time his compositional career had expanded to the point where he could withdraw from teaching, and he moved to Città di Castello

Città di Castello

Città di Castello is a city and comune in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of the Umbria region of Italy. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain of the river Tiber. The city is north of Perugia and south of Cesena on the S3bis. It is connected to the A1...

, in Umbria

Umbria

Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...

, where he has resided ever since. He nevertheless has continued to teach sporadically in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 and Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

, as well as in Città di Castello. Some of his notable students include Francesco Filidei

Francesco Filidei

Francesco Filidei is an Italian organist and composer, student of Salvatore Sciarrino and Jean Guillou.He imagines music which has lost the sound element.-Notes:...

, Lucia Ronchetti

Lucia Ronchetti

Lucia Ronchetti is a contemporary Italian composer.-Biography:Lucia Ronchetti studied composition and computer music at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome and took part in composition seminars with Sylvano Bussotti at the Scuola di Musica of Fiesole and with Salvatore Sciarrino at the...

, Fabrizio De Rossi Rei, and Maurizio Pisati

Maurizio Pisati

Maurizio Pisati - is an Italian composer.Born 1959 in Milan, he composes and performs his own works with his ZONE group [ZONE]. [His music] has been performed throughout both western and eastern Europe, the USA, Australia and Japan, is published by Casa-Ricordi, has been awarded prizes and selected...

.

Musical style

Sciarrino's work is avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

, and he is known for his use of isolated sonorities, extended playing techniques, frequent silences, and ironic or confrontational quotation of previous music (for instance, American pop music) or stories (such as in Lohengrin).

His works include a large body of chamber music, including many pieces for wind instruments, five piano sonatas, and several operas or theatrical works: Da gelo a gelo

Da gelo a gelo

Da gelo a gelo is an opera in 100 scenes by Salvatore Sciarrino. The composer's Italian libretto is based on one year and 65 poems from the journal of Izumi Shikibu encompassing her affair with Prince Atsumishi.The opera was a co-commission of the Schwetzingen Festival, the Grand Théâtre de...

, Infinito nero, Macbeth, Perseo ed Andromeda, Lohengrin

Lohengrin (Sciarrino)

Lohengrin is an operatic monodrama by the Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino. Premiered in 1982 in Milan the work was later revised by Sciarrino and the new version was premiered in on September 9, 1984 in Catanzaro. The opera, which is less than an hour long, is loosely based on the plot of...

, and Luci mie traditrici.

External links