Massimiliano Messieri

MASSIMILIANO MESSIERI (Bologna, 1964)

Composer, conductor and music director of the MASKFEST (San Marino International Festival of New Music), after the academic and advanced studies (Bologna and Pesaro Conservatory of Music, Fiesole Academy, Chigiana Academy in Siena, IRCAM in Paris) he concentrated his musical research on the interaction of arts. This is why the ballets are composed with the Corea Dance Company: “ESPRESSIONE I” (Bologna, 1994), “QUINTETTO” (Bergamo, 1994), “TARKÌZ” (Bologna, 1995) and “CABARET SELVAGGIO” (Milan, 1999) with the Pierpaolo Koss Dance Company. In 1994 in Bologna with the artist Daniela Carati, he organized the project “Art Difference – hypothesis of interactions and coincidences of Prime Works of Painters, Sculptors, Composers and Poets” and two year late the book of art “Reazioni Interattive” was published (Circolo degli Artisti Edition, Faenza 1996).

In 1997, the Italian Mozart Association in Rovereto, supported by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg, commissioned him the TafelOpera “DON GIOVANNI, THE REDEEMED DISSOLUTE“ (1998), and later it is published by Loescher Editions in the didactic books for the first and second level “Musica dal Vivo” by Giovanni Duci with a preface by Claudio Abbado. In 2000, the National Research Institute for Material Physics (INFM) commissioned him, for the Genoa INFMeeting 2000, “LEONIDS’ PLAY“, a composition for 5 audio CDs created on the real sound of the Leonids provided by NASA. In 2004, he was commissioned the opera “GRETCHENS TRAUM”, performed at the Ettersburg Castle (supported by Stiftung Weimar Kassik). In 2007, he recorded with Duo Messieri/Selva the audio cd “NOISES X” (Drycastle Records) and two years late “MA$KEN” (Drycastle Records, 2009). In 2010, he has the world premiere of the “QUARTETTO D’ARCHI No.2” played by Kracow Philharmonic String Quartet for the “92nd Anniversary of the Reconquest of Poland’s Independence” in Krakow Jewish Cultural Center. In 2012, he has the world premiere by “ZADIG” 21 Capricios for solo cello (also live electronics) with Nicola Baroni (cello, Max/Msp and hypercello) in Espoo (Finland), and in the 2017, with the same cellist, he records all 21 capricios on AmadeusArte label and distributed by Naxos.

In 2018 the Mascagni Conservatory of Music in Livorno dedicates him a concert for the “Suoni Inauditi” International Festival, commissioning him “SALMO XLIII“, lyric for soprano, male chorus, baritone saxophone and live electronics (Elena Tereshchenko, soprano; Valerio Barbieri, saxophone; Maestro Gabriele Micheli, conductor); in the same year the Embassy of San Marino in Vienna presents its music at the Rotunda Hall of the United Nations (Elena Tereshchenko, soprano; Valerio Barbieri and Cristina Roffi, saxophones). In April 2019 at the Teatro Rossini in Pesaro, Messieri represented the world premiere by “ALICE“, a two-act opera with the Rossini Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maestro Dean Anderson and directed by Anna Tereshchenko (Elena Tereshchenko, Lena/Alice; Stefanica Baitan, Leila/Nurse; Eva Ruggeri, Anja/Nun; Dielli Hoxha, Mehmet/God/Devil). In 2020 during the Covid pandemic, Messieri writes a series of compositions for solo piano, and a year later they are recorded on “ISLANDS” Cd by Patrizia Romanello for the AmadeusArte Label.

M. Messieri won the first prize at the International Competition of Composition “2 Agosto“ (Bologna, 1997), “100 note“ (New York, 2006), “CMN“ (Miami, 2013) and various national competitions. His scores are commissioned and performed at the Town Theatre in Bologna, at the Martinu Hall in Prague, at the Schlosskirche in Ettersburg (Weimar), IIC (Prague, Hamburg, Copenhagen and San Francisco), 1° and 2° International Piano Competition in Republic of San Marino, Forfest Festival in Kromeriz, “oh-ton” in Oldenburg, “Cracovia Sacra” in Cracow, “ArtX Detroit” at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit, Spectrum Foundation in New York, “CCRMA” Stanford University, “KSFNM” Festival Kennesaw State University, “Hole Memorial” La Sierra University Auditorium in Riverside, Scriabin Museum Auditorium in Moscow, Hot Air Music Festival in San Francisco, Merkin Hall in New York and in other festivals of new music.

He holds masterclasses and lectures at the Conservatory of Music in Krakow, DAMS University in Bologna, Kennesaw State University, International Forfest Festival in Kromeriz, IULM University in Milan, La Sierra University in Riverside, Edinburgh University. Messieri’s compositions are published and distributed by Ut Orpheus Edition, Da Vinci Edition, Universal Edition, and they are recorded on AmadeusArte, Tactus, Da Vinci Classics, Discantica and Drycastle Records.  He is professor in theory and orchestra lessons at the “Istituto Musicale Sammarinese” Conservatory of Music in San Marino (Europe).

MY MUSIC

A little over ten years ago I started taking as incipit a small element that belongs to the history of music, the tetrachord, which was the element on which western music marked its origins, and I developed it, trying to understand the reason for this element, since I realized that in the previous scores, prior to 2010, I revolved around certain compositional-musical elements, such as the structure, not seen as a form but as a musical consequence. At the base of all this way of writing there was the research of the little one, that is to enter into a sound material that gave me the possibility to discover other worlds; perhaps this was also determined by my (ever more constant) approach to electronic music, which gave me much broader musical compositional and thinking ideas than stopping at a purely graphic material. Anyway, I have been defined as a lyrical, modal and minimalist composer, but I however consider music a language to reveal one’s thoughts and emotions.