counter)induction

Luca Francesconi

Luca Francesconi was born in Milan in 1956. He studied piano at Milan Conservatory and composition with Azio Corghi, in Boston, in Rome with Karlheinz Stockhausen and at Tanglewood with Luciano Berio. In 1990 he founded in Milan, a centre of musical production and research with new technology. He has received numerous international prizes and awards for his works: Aosta (1983), Gaudeamus (1984), Martin Codax (1985), Guido d’Arezzo (1985), New Music Composers’ Competition (1987).

In 1988 he won the StipendienPreis and in 1990 the Kranichsteiner MusikPreis of the city of Darmstadt. In 1994 he was awarded the Siemens Prize (München) for his compositions as a whole, and in the same year he won the Prix Italia with “Ballata del rovescio del mondo”, a work for radio to texts by Umberto Fiori. In 1990/91 he was invited to Rotterdam Conservatory as visiting professor of composition; in 1995 he was composer in resedence at Strasbourg Conservatory, and in the same year he went to teach at IRCAM’s Académie d’ Eté in Paris.

Luca Francesconi has so far written over fifty works for the most diverse ensembles, from soloist to large orchestra, many of which were commissioned by major European musical and radio institutions. These include three string quartets, two oboe concertos, many works for soloist and ensemble or soloist and orchestra, such as Riti Neurali (violin), Les Barricades Mysterieuses (flute), Islands (piano), Trama (saxophone/clarinet), A Fuoco (guitar). He has composed electronic music and vocal music, including Etymo for soprano, chamber orchestra and informatics equipement commissioned by IRCAM, and Sirene/Gespenster, oratorio pagano for four female choruses, percussion, brass and electronics commissioned and co-produces by WDR, ASKO, SDR, VARA, IRCAM, AGON; music for wind instruments, including a quintet (Attesa), an octet (Aria), an instrumental suite after Monteverdi’s Orfeo, a huge work for five bands in movement (Mittel). His other compositions include Suite 1984, a sort of “polyphony of languages” for symphonic orchestra, jazz quartet and ensemble of percussionists from Guinea; four works of radio theatre for RAI, Radiotelevisione Italiana; a chamber opera and an opera in two acts (Scene) to texts to Milanese poet Umberto Fiori, and the video-opera Striáz (1996) wuth images by Studio Azzurro. In collaboration with Fiori he is writing a new opera based on Coleridge’s The Rime of Ancient Mariner, commissioned by Théatre de la Monnaie in Brussels for 1999. Luca Francesconi collaborates regularly with major international interpreters and ensembles: Arditti Quartet, Artaud, Chailly, Masson, Ensemble InterContemporain, IRCAM, London Sinfonietta, ASKO Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Contrechamps, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Xenakis Ensemble, Ensemble Ictus, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and others. He also works as a conductor, and teaches composition at Milan Conservatory.