mdi ensemble
mdi ensemble was formed in Milan in 2002 from the idea of six young musicians sharing their mutual enthusiasm for contemporary music.
From the very beginning, the ensemble established close collaborations with many renewed composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Sofia Gubaidulina, Gérard Pesson, Pierluigi Billone, as well as premiering several new works by young composers emerging from the international scene.
At the same time, the ensemble frequently collaborates with eminent conductors such as Stefan Asbury, Beat Furrer, Emilio Pomarico, Yoichi Sugiyama, Robert HP Platz, Marino Formenti and Pierre-André Valade.
mdi ensemble has been awarded with the prize “Una vita nella musica” by La Fenice Theatre, Venice, in June 2017, for “[…] pursuing with perseverance and tireless attention a very precise aim, which is working on contemporary music as a classical chamber music would do, shaping a strong identity in the sound and in the style of the performances”.
From 2012, mdi is artist-in residence at the prestigious Milano Musica Festival. The ensemble also regularly appears at some of the most relevant Italian festival and venues, such as festival MiTo Settembre Musica, Società del Quartetto di Milano, Ravenna Festival, Music Biennale and Fondazione Cini in Venice, Mittelfest, Japanese Institute and American Academy in Rome, festival Traiettorie in Parma, Amici della Musica in Palermo. In 2010, mdi was invited as ensemble-in-residence by the festival Koiné at Teatro dal Verme in Milan, performing among others Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire in a stage version realized by Sylvano Bussotti in partnership with the Teatro alla Scala Academy.
Today, mdi ensemble is also promoter of two concert series in Milan and Florence, respectevely “Sound of Wander” and “Contrasti”, that run every autumn since 2015.
Described from the Los Angeles Times as “astonishingly competent”, mdi ensemble performed throughout Europe and overseas, notably at Festival Présences de Radio France in Paris, Villa Concordia in Bamberg, Tonhalle in Dusseldorf, Konzerthaus in Dortmund, Japanese and Italian Institutes in Koln, SWR Stuttgart, ORF Innsbruck, Societé de Musique Contemporaine in Lausanne, festival MusicAperta in Winterthur, Teatro Forteza in Majorca, Los Angeles County Museum of Arts and Chelsea Music Festival in New York City (as ensemble-in-residence). In 2008, the ensemble marked its debut in Japan and Tokyo.
The first mdi ensemble recording, Antiterra by Stefano Gervasoni (AEON), has been awarded by Academy Charles Cros the prestigious “Coup de Coeur – Musique contemporaine 2009”. Their discography also includes monographic CDs dedicated to Sylvano Bussotti’s and Marco Momi’s music (Stradivarius), as well as the more recent albums Dulle Griet by Giovanni Verrando (AEON) and Electric Blueprint by Misato Mochizuki (NEOS).
Their latest release is Emanuele Casale by mdi ensemble (Stradivarius).
In 2015 mdi ensemble realized See the Sound – Hommage to Helmut Lachenmann, a documentary released in October 2017 by l’empreinte digitale which include a long interview with the composer and a video performance of some of his chamber music masterpieces.
http://www.mdiensemble.com/

Salvatore Sciarrino
Salvatore Sciarrino (Palermo, 1947) boasts of being born free and not in a music school.
He started composing when he was twelve as a self-taught person and held his first public concert in 1962.
But Sciarrino considers all the works before 1966 as an developing apprenticeship because that is when his personal style began to reveal itself. There is something really particular that characterizes this music: it leads to a different way of listening, a global emotional realization, of reality as well as of one’s self. And after forty years, the extensive catalogue of Sciarrino’s compositions is still in a phase of surprising creative development. After his classical studies and a few years of university in his home city, the Sicilian composer moved to Rome in 1969 and in 1977 to Milan. Since 1983, he has lived in Città di Castello, in Umbria.

He has composed for: Teatro alla Scala, RAI, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Biennale di Venezia, Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Fondazione Arena di Verona, Stuttgart Opera Theatre, Brussels La Monnaie, Frankfurt Opera Theatre, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, London Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Suntory Hall. He has also composed for the following festivals: Schwetzinger Festspiele, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Witten, Salzburg, New York, Wien Modern, Wiener Festwochen, Berliner Festspiele Musik, Holland Festival, Alborough, Festival d’Automne (Paris), Ultima (Oslo).

He was published by Ricordi from 1969 to 2004. Since 2005, Rai Trade has had exclusive rights for Sciarrino’s works. Sciarrino’s discography is pretty extensive and counts over 100 CDs, published by the best international record labels and very often awarded and noted.

Apart from being author of most of his theatre opera’s librettos, Sciarrino wrote a rich production of articles, essays and texts of various genres some of which have been chosen and collected in Carte da suono, CIDIM – Novecento, 2001. Particularly important is his interdisciplinary book about musical form: Le figure della musica, da Beethoven a oggi, Ricordi 1998.

Sciarrino taught at the Music Academies of Milan (1974–83), Perugia (1983–87) and Florence (1987– 96). He also worked as a teacher in various specialization courses and masterclasses among which are those held in Città di Castello from 1979 to 2000 and the Lectures at Boston University. He currently teaches in the summer masterclasses at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.

From 1978 to 1980, he was Artistic Director of Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
Academic of Santa Cecilia (Roma), Academic of Fine Arts of Bavaria and Academic of the Arts (Berlin), Sciarrino has won many awards, among the most recent are: the Prince Pierre de Monaco (2003), the prestigious Feltrinelli International Award (Premio Internazionale Feltrinelli) (2003), the Salzburg Music Prize (2006), an International Composition Price established by the Salzburg Land, the Frontiers of Knowledge Prize from the Spanish BBVA Foundation (2011), the A Life in Music Prize from the Teatro La Fenice – Associazione Rubinstein in Venice (2014), the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from the Venice Biennale (2016).
https://www.salvatoresciarrino.eu/

Giorgio Netti
Giorgio Netti was born in 1963 in Milano. He studied composition with Sandro Gorli at the G. Verdi Conservatory of Milan and attended courses at the Contemporary Music Section of Civica Scuola di Musica in the same city with B. Ferneyhough, G. Grisey, E. Nunes, W. Rihm, I. Xenakis.
Awards
• Special mention Wieniawski Competition 1990
• Special mention CASELLA 1995
• ICOMS 1996 and 1997
• Klangforum Wien workshop 2000
Commissions
• Elision Ensemble Melbourne 1995
• Musik der Jahrhunderte Stuttgart 1997
• Wittener Tage fur Neue Musik Koln 1998
• Neue Musik Rumlingen Basel 2000
• Tage fur Neue Musik Zurich 2001
• Wittener Tage fur Neue Musik 2004
• Steirischer Herbst Graz 2004
• Stockholm New Music 2006
• Musica Viva München 2009
• Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation 2011
Fellowship
• Japan Foundation Tokyo, Uchida Fellowship 2004
Cd
• "Spaces.Räume." L.Mlekusch sax, ed. Zeitklang Musikproduktion 2008
• Durian 2003: "necessità d’interrogare il cielo" (67’), Marcus Weiss, sax
http://www.giorgionetti.com/

Francesco Filidei
Francesco Filidei wurde 1973 in Pisa geboren. Sein Musikstudium begann er in Florenz zunächst im Fach Orgel, bald auch in Komposition. Den Abschluss machte er am Pariser Conservatoire National Supérieur, worauf eine kurze Zwischenstation am Pariser Forschungszentrum IRCAM folgte. Als Organist und Komponist wurde er von vielen wichtigen Festivals der zeitgenössischen Musik eingeladen und seine Werke wurden durch Orchester wie dem WDR, SWR, RSO, Philharmonieorchester Tokio, und Ensembles wie 2e2m, Linéa, l’Itinéraire, Alter Ego, Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien u. v. m. zur Aufführung gebracht. Diverse Lehraufträge an renommierten Hochschulen sowie zahlreiche Preise (Musikförderpreis Salzburg 2006, Takefu Festival Preis 2007, Siemens Musikförderpreis 2009, UNESCO Picasso-Miró-Medaille des IMC 2011, Franco-Abbiati-Preis 2015) dokumentieren sein vielseitiges künstlerisches Schaffen.

Marco Stroppa
Der Komponist, Forscher und Dozent Marco Stroppa (geb. 8.12.1959 in Verona) begann seine Musikstudien in Italien (Diplom in Klavier, Komposition, Chorleitung und Elektronische Musik). Er perfektionierte in der Zeit von 1984 bis 1986 seine wissenschaftlichen Kenntnisse am Massachusetts Institute of Technology in den USA (Kognitive Psychologie, Informatik und Künstliche Intelligenz).
Von 1980 bis 1984 arbeitete er mit dem Computerklangforschungszentrum der Universität Padua zusammen. Auf Einladung von Pierre Boulez hin, zog er 1982 nach Paris um als Komponist und Forscher am IRCAM zu arbeiten. Von 1987 bis 1990 wurde er auch Direktor der Abteilung für musikalische Forschung des IRCAMs ernannt. Diese Zusammenarbeit setzte sich ohne Unterbrechung bis heute fort und war von entschiedener Bedeutung für seine musikalische Ausbildung.
1996 erhielt er den Kompositionspreis der Osterfestspiele in Salzburg. Im Sommer des gleichen Jahres war er unter den Komponisten der Next Generation bei den Salzburger Festspielen.
Als aktiver Dozent erteilt Marco Stroppa seit 1984 am IRCAM Unterricht. 1987 gründet er den Kompositions- und Computermusikkurs beim Internationalen Bartók Festival in Szombathely (Ungarn), wo er bis 1999 unterrichtete. Seit 1999 ist er Professor für Komposition an der Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart. Er unterrichtete auch an dem Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris und Lyon.
Unter den wichtigsten Werken zählen: Traiettoria (1982-84) für Klavier und Elektronik, Spirali (1988-89) für Streichquartett mit Raumprojektion, Hiranyaloka (1993-4) für Orchester, élet...fogytiglan (1989-98) für Ensemble, 1. Buch (1991-95) für Klavier, Zwielicht (1998) für 2 Schlagzeuger, Kontrabass, Elektronik und 13-D Raumprojektion, Come Natura di Foglia (1996-2001) für Vokalensemble und Elektronik sowie verschiedene Reihen (Auras, 1995, für Schlagzeug, little i, 1996, für Flôte, I will not kiss your f.ing flag, 2005, für Posaune, ...of Silence, 2007, für Saxofon, hist whist, 2009, für Violine), Concertos (Upon a Blade of Grass, 1996, für Klavier und großes Orchester und From Needle's Eye, 1999, für Posaune, 2 Quintette und Schlagzeug), Chorwerke (Cantilena, 2001, für 16-stimmingen 3-fach geteilten gemischten Chor, Lamento, 2004, für 6-stimmigen gemischten Chor) und kammermusikalische Werke (Hommage à Gy. K., 2003, für Klarinette, Bratsche und Klavier, Nous sommes l’air, par la terre, 2003, für Bratsche und Akkordeon, Ossia, Seven Strophes for a Literary Drone, 2005, für Violine, Cello und Klavier, Opus nainileven, Cinque Requies per la Democrazia, 2004, für Bläserquintett, gla-dya, études sur les rayonnements jumeaux, für 2 Hörner.
In Vorbereitung: And one by one we drop away, für Cello und 3 Orchestergruppen, Like Milk Spilt, für Akkordeon, 2 Schattenakkordeons und Orchester sowie ein Projekt für das Musiktheater über ein Libretto von Arrigo Boito (Re Orso) für Opéra Comique, Paris, und La Monnaie, Brussel.