Lucia Ronchetti

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 (1981–85) and with Salvatore Sciarrino at the Corsi Internazionali of Citta di Castello (1988–1989). She studied humanities at the Sapienza University of Rome, where she got her degree in 1987, presenting a dissertation on Bruno Maderna's orchestral compositions. In 1991 she received a Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies (D.E.A.) in aesthetics from the University of Paris I-Sorbonne. She subsequently studied musicology with Francois Lesure at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes en Sorbonne and received a doctorate with her thesis on the orchestral style of Ernest Chausson and Wagnerian influence on late 19th-century French orchestral writing. In Paris she participated in composition seminars with Gerard Grisey (1993–1996) and took part in the annual computer music courses at IRCAM (1997) under the supervision of Tristan Murail. In 2005 she was a Visiting Scholar (Fulbright Fellow) at the Music Department of Columbia University (New York), having been invited by Tristan Murail¹.

Her works have been published by Rai Trade, Durand, Ricordi and Lemoine, and produced, commissioned and performed by such institutions as the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; Konzerthaus, Berlin; Rai Radio Tre, Rome; Deutschland Radio Kultur, Berlin; Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt; MaerzMusik, Berlin; Musik der Jahrhunderte, Stuttgart; Deutschland Radio, Berlin; ensemble recherche, Freiburg; Festival Ultrashall, Berlin; Orchestra of the Rai, Turin; WDR Sinfonieorchester, Cologne; Teatro La Fenice, Venice; Wittener Tagen, Witten; G. R. M., Radio France, Paris; and the Munich Biennale.

Awards and recognition

2008 Music Theatre Now Prize (International Theatre Institute)
2006 Composer-in-residence, Yaddo, New York
2005-06 Composer in residence, Berliner Kunstlerprogramm, D.A.A.D.
2005 Visiting Scholar (Fulbright Fellow), Columbia University, New York
2003-04 Composer-in-residence, Staatsoper Stuttgart (ForumNeues Musiktheater)
2003 Composer-in-residence, The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, (USA)
2000-01 Composer-in-residence, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
2000 Composition Prize, Federazione Cemat, Rome
1997 Fellowship, Fondation des Treilles, Paris
1997 Dimitri Mitropoulos International Composition Prize, Athens
1997 Erato-Farnesina Fellowship, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1995 “Progetto Dionysos” Composition Prize, Italian Ministry of Culture
1993 Composer-in-residence, Fondation Nadia Boulanger, Paris
1988-92 Doctoral Studies Fellowship, Italian Ministry of Universities

Works

Starting in 1998, she realized various productions at the Berlin Institute of Technology (TUB) in collaboration with Folkmar Hein. In 2003 she started working at the Experimentalstudio of Freiburg, where she wrote a cycle of compositions that explore the sound configuration of the viola, with the assistance of Andre Richard, Reinhold Braig and Joachim Haas and in collaboration with the violist Barbara Maurer; it was presented in Berlin (Festival Ultrashall 2007) and is called “Xylocopa Violacea” (CD Stradivarius 2010)².

In the last few years, Lucia Ronchetti has been working on the compositional treatment of the voice, collaborating intensively with the Neue Vocalsolisten of Stuttgart, one of the foremost European ensembles specializing in contemporary vocal music³. Their collaboration has resulted in eight different productions: Studio detto dei venti, for four voices, 2010; Le voyage d’Urien, for voices and ensemble, 2008; Hamlet’s Mill, for voices, viola and cello, 2007; Coins and Crosses, for six voices, 2007; Pinocchio, una storia parallela, for four male voices, 2005; Last Desire, chamber opera for treble voice, countertenor and bass, 2003^{4 5}; Hombre de mucha gravedad, for four voices and string quartet, 2002; Anatra al sal, Comedia harmonica for six voices, 2000 (CD Kairos 2010).

She has realized numerous music theatre projects inspired by the social scene⁶, exploring, in the dramaturgy, the concept of otherness (BendelSchlemihl, Strasse-opern, 2000, text by Ivan Vladislavic); outsider groups and dysptopia (Narrenschiffe, in-transit action, 2010, text after Sebastian Brant)⁷; limen/border (Der Sonne entgegen, chamber opera, 2009, text by Steffi Hansel)⁸; transitory mental illness (Le voyage d’Urien, drammaturgia, text after Gide and 19th century psychiatric reportages, 2008); sub-urbanity (Rumori da monumenti, drammaturgia, text by Ivan Vladislavic, 2007); and Sebenza e-mine, Radio Play, in collaboration with Philip Miller, 2010).

For her music theatre projects she has collaborated with writers Ermanno Cavazzoni, Ivan Vladislavic, Eugene Ostashevsky; artists Toti Scialoja, Alberto Sorbelli, Judith Cahen, Dorte Meyer, Adrian Tranquilli, Elisabetta Benassi, Mirella Weingarten; and sound designers Marie-Helene Serra, Folkmar Hein, Andre Richard, Reinhold Braig, Carl Faia, Olivier Pasquet and Thomas Seelig.

List of recent works

Music theatre
Lezioni di tenebra (2010) for voices and ensemble, after the Giasone by Francesco Cavalli
Narrenschiffe (2009–2010) In-transit actions after Sebastian Brant
Der Sonne entgegen (2007–2009) for 14 voices, ensemble and live (text by S. Hensel)
Last Desire (2004) for treble voice, countertenor, bass, viola and live (text from O.Wilde)
L’ape apatica (2001) for treble voices, ensemble and live (text by Toti Scialoja)
Le tentazioni di Girolamo (1995) for actor, soloists and live electronics (text by E.Cavazzoni)
Musikfassli (1994) for actor, soloists and live electronics after Adolf Wolfli

Theatrical concert works
Prosopopeia (2009) for vocal ensemble and instrumental ensemble⁹
Rumori da monumenti (2008) for recorded voice and ensemble (text by I. Vladislavic)¹⁰
Le Voyage d’Urien (2008) for 5 voices and ensemble
Xylocopa Violacea (2007) for solo viola and live electronics
Albertine (2007) for female voice and whispering public (text from M.Proust)
Hamlet’s Mill (2007) for soprano, bass, viola and cello (text by E. Ostashevsky )
Pinocchio, una storia parallela (2005) for four male voices (text from G.Manganelli)
Hombre de mucha gravedad (2002) for vocal quartet and string quartet
BendelSchlemihl (2000) for recorded voices, accordion and live (text by I. Vladislavic)
Anatra al sal (1999) Comedia harmonica for six voices (text by E. Cavazzoni)

Orchestral works
Arborescence (2004)
Declive-Etude (2002)
Quaderno gotico (1999)
Schiffbruch mit Zuschauer (1995, rev. 1999)
Die Sorge getht uber den Fluss (1995) for flute, clarinet and orchestra

Chamber music works
Rosso pompeiano (2010) Scherzo for ensemble
Studio detto dei venti (2010) A medley attempt for 6 voices
Like winter moving backwards (2009) A study for one piano, four hands
Le nuove musiche di Giulio Caccini detto Romano, 1601, Lesson for solo voice (2008)
Coins and crosses (2007) A Yessong, for vocal ensemble
In shape of Anxieties (2005) In Nomine Studio for ensemble
The Glazed Roof (2005) for ensemble
Opus 100 (2005) Kriptomnesie da Schubert, for violino, cello and piano
Il sonno di Atys (2004) for viola and live electronics
Geographisches Heft (2001) Studio da Adolf Wolfli, for ensemble

Radio Plays
Sebenza e-mine (2010) in collaboration with Philip Miller
Il Castello d’Atlante (2007)
Rivelazione (1998) in collaboration with Ermanno Cavazzoni