updated 29 April 2024
© DR

Nicola Sani

Italian composer born 27 March 1961 in Ferrara.

Nicola Sani studied composition under Domenico Guaccero and electronic music with Giorgio Nottoli. He later refined his skills with Karlheinz Stockhausen. Throughout his career, he has drawn significant inspiration from his education in the 1970s as well as from the political engagement of other contemporary composers such as Luigi Nono. These influences instilled in Sani the belief that composers have a responsibility to drive societal change and improvement beyond mere theorizing, with music contributing to all domains.

His various leadership roles attest to his commitment to music-related cultural policies in Italy. He led the electronic art section of the RomaEuropa Festival (1992-1993), oversaw the music section of the Arte Elettronica Festival in Camerino (1996-1997), and was artistic director of the Emergenze contemporary chamber music festival in Rome (1997-1999). In 1998, he became artistic advisor for the University Institution of Concerts in Rome and, in 2000, artistic director of the Sonora Project, to promote new Italian music internationally. He later served on the Board of Directors (2006-2009) and as artistic director (2008-2009) of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. He held similar roles at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2015-2017) and the Accademia Chigiana di Siena (from 2015 to present). He is a founding member of FACE (Festival Alliance for Contemporary Music in Europe), which brings together leading European new music festivals. He has also been a member of the Board of Directors of Opera Europa and is part of the editorial board of the musicological journal Musica/Realtà.

Sani has received commissions from many international institutions. In France, these include the French State, the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Institute, and the Centre International de Recherche Musicale in Nice. In Germany, his commissions have come from the Akademie der Künste, the Inventionen Festival, the Electronic Studio of the TU-Technische Universität, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Ensemble Modern, the Experimental Studio of the Heinrich Strobel Foundation of SWR Freiburg, and the Musik der Jahrhundert in Stuttgart. He has also received commissions from Chamber Choir Ireland and the Moscow Conservatory of Music. Many Italian institutions have also commissioned his work, including the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Venice Biennale Musica, RAI, the RomaEuropa Festival, the Comitato Nazionale Italiano Musica, the Musica Presente Festival at La Scala in Milan, the Festival di Palermo sul Novecento, the Teatro di Roma, and the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, as well as the Centro Ricerche Musicali and Nuova Consonanza in Rome.

Sani aims to create a pluralistic sound that interacts with other art forms, such as video art, painting, and architecture. His output includes instrumental works for musical theater and dance, installations, mixed media compositions, and electroacoustic pieces. He views electroacoustics as an expansion of instrumental sound, as theorized in his book Musica espansa (Expanded Music, 2000).

This multidisciplinary approach has led him to numerous collaborations, including with director Daniele Abbado and video artists Nam June Paik and Fabrizio Plessi. Sani’s most significant collaboration was with Michelangelo Antonioni starting in 1992. They worked together on the Italian pavilion at the 1992 Seville Expo, for which Sani wrote the music for Antonioni’s short film on Sicily.

Sani is also devoted to the legacy of Giacinto Scelsi and has contributed to reviving interest in Scelsi’s work in Italy. He has served as president of the Fondazione Isabella Scelsi for ten years and founded the Scelsi archives. Additionally, he serves on the board of the Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono di Venezia.

His works are published by Suvini Zerboni Editions. His CDs and DVDs have been released by Stradivarius, Agorà, PH Music Worx, Wergo, Mnemosyne, and Medusa.

Awards and Honors

  • Honorary Academician of the Accademia delle Arti e del Disegno in Florence, 2023
  • Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, 2011
  • International Giuseppe Verdi Career Award, 2008
  • Prix Guggenheim for multimedia installation La Torre delle Trilogie with Mario Sasso, 1999

© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2024

Sources

CIRM, France Musique, Sienna News

  • Solo (excluding voice)
  • Chamber music
  • Instrumental ensemble music
    • elec In stiller ewiger Klarheit for ensemble and electronics (1995), 16 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • stage Una favola per caso opera for children, composed with Lucio Gregoretti (1996), 1 h 10 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • stage Spargimento opera for music and dance (1997), Suvini Zerboni
    • Crepuscoli del divenire for orchestra (1998), 12 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Al folle volo for orchestra (2004), 13 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • elec stage Una favola per caso opera for children, version with chamber orchestra, composed with Lucio Gregoretti (2006), 1 h 10 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • stage Cenerentola.com opera for children in two acts, composed with Lucio Gregoretti (2010-2011), 1 h 30 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • elec Lied- you have been lied 2 for alto flute with distortion, bass clarinet, violin, cello, metal plates and digital medium (2011), 21 mn 30 s, Suvini Zerboni
    • Seascapes for orchestra and stereophonic sound space (2011), 6 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • elec Seascapes II for ensemble and digital medium (2011), 6 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Vidi in terra angelici costumi for ensemble (2011), 13 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Deux for ensemble (2012), 15 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • elec Red light over black for fifteen strings and two digital channels (2012), 11 mn 30 s, Suvini Zerboni
    • Seascapes III "Caieta" for orchestra (2012), 8 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Gimme Scelsi for ensemble (2013), 15 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Seascapes IX "Münster", for orchestra (2016), 12 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Tempestate for orchestra (2018), 15 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Al folle volo version for reduced orchestra (2021), 13 mn, Suvini Zerboni
  • Concertant music
  • Vocal music and instrument(s)
    • Il nuovo canto for soprano and nine instruments (1994), 13 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • elec stage L''incarico e il fine scenic cantata for reciting voices, choir, instruments, live electronics and tape (1994), 42 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Il grande cielo soggettivo music for the melologue for reciting voice and ensemble (1997), 15 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • stage Il gioco dei mostri fantastic opera in two acts, composed with Lucio Gregoretti (1999), 60 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • elec Adagio moss for voices and percussion on magnetic tape (2002), 27 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Passagen im Gegenlicht for treble voices choir and orchestra (2003), 17 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Passagen im Gegenlicht version for treble voices choir and intrumental group (2003), 17 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • elec Auf den Inseln des Widerstands for mezzo-soprano, five solo voices, ensemble of 10 instruments and live electronics (2004), 50 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • elec stage Diotima e euridice radio opera for voices, instruments and electronics in a prologue and six scenes (2004), 50 mn 40 s, Suvini Zerboni
    • L'indifferenza for reciting voices and 12 strings (2004), 9 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • elec stage Diotima e euridice chamber opera for voices, instruments and electronics (2005), 1 h 10 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • elec stage Falcone, il tempo sospeso volo teatro musicale della nostra storia, opera in a prologue, 26 scenes and a finale for three bass voices, two reciting voices, female choir, 18 instruments and 8-channel digital medium (2007, 2011), 1 h 15 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Sul denaro for reciting voices and ensemble (2008), 10 mn, Suvini Zerboni
    • Seascapes VIII "Controvento", for alto flute and mixed choir (2016), Suvini Zerboni
  • A cappella vocal music
  • Electronic music / fixed media / mechanical musical instruments

Liens Internet

(lien vérifié en avril 2024).

Bibliographie

  • Francesco GALANTE, Nicola SANI, Musica espansa, Milan, LIM, 2000.

Discographie sélective

  • Nicola SANI, Seascape IX, Münster ; Deux, le contraire de ‘Un’ ; Light red over black ; Gimme Scelsi ; Tempestate, dans « Tempestate (Orchestral Works) », 1 CD Stradivarius, 2021, STR 37186.
  • Nicola SANI, I binari del tempo ; Imagine from butterfly ; Dialoghi migranti ; Dove arrivano le nuvole più vaste ; Un souffle le soulève, les dunes du temps ; More is different, dans « Dove arrivano le nuvole più vaste », 1 CD Stradivarius, 2019, STR 37120.
  • Nicola SANI, AchaB ; Oltre il deserto spazio ; Come una specie di infinito ; Verso un altro Occidente ; Raw ; A time for the evening ; Vidi in terra angelici costumi ; Sul denaro, dans « Raw », 1 CD Stradivarius, 2015, STR 37022.
  • Nicola SANI, Four darks in red ; Studio per li ali ; Black area in reds, dans « In Red », 1 CD Stradivarius, 2014, STR 33919.
  • Nicola SANI, Wassererinnerungen ; Windstille ; Terra ; Con fuoco, dans « Elements », 2 CD Stradivarius, 2007, STR 33766.
  • Nicola SANI, Concetto spaziale, attese ; Sonore image de mon absence ; I binari del tempo ; Un canto dell’isola ; Non tutte le isole hanno intorno il mare - Isola Terza ; Oltre il deserto spazio, dans « Oltre il deserto spazio », 1 CD Stradivarius, 2002, STR 33609.