Ivan Fedele
Biography
Ivan Fedele (Lecce 1953) has achieved considerable standing among contemporary composers.
Ivan has close to 200 compositions in his catalogue which includes compositions with and without electronics. He has written for chamber and symphonic ensembles (the Syntax and Lexikon cycles in particular), for musical theatre (Antigone from Sophocles, Thanathoséros from Torquato Tasso and Words and Music by Samuel Beckett), for radio broadcasts (Pentalogon, Barbara mitica and Orfeo al cinema Orfeo on texts by Giuliano Corti) as well as for the silent cinema (La chute de la maison Usher by Jean Epstein) and, finally, a recent video-opera, Galileo's journey.
His music has been conducted, among others, by Pierre Boulez, Christoph Eschenbach, Myung-whun Chung, Riccardo Muti, Leonard Slatkin, Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Chailly, Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Robertson, John Axelrod, Dmitri Liss and performed by the most accredited orchestras and ensembles such as BBC London, RIAS Berlin, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and of S. Francisco, SWR of Stuttgart, National de France, National de Lyon, Warsaw Symphony Orchestra, OSN of RAI, Symphony Orchestra of S. Cecilia, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble InterContemporain, London Sinfonietta, Klangforum Wien, etc.
Ivan Fedele's idea of music can be summed up by the expression "sculpting sound", a programmatic objective that is achieved by conceiving and developing the musical material and its forms based on a figurative grammar (especially in the early days up to the start of the new millennium) and, subsequently, moving over to generative grammar which allows the sound to "tell" its own story.
The perceptive aspect of music is at the heart of Ivan’s compositional thinking and all the strategies that shape the imagination are geared towards it.
Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio were fundamental figures for the composer’s development, as was the meeting with Franco Donatoni in the ‘80s.
Ivan was a professor at the National Academy of S. Cecilia until 2023 and artistic director of the Music Sector of the Venice Biennale from 2012 to 2020.
Among the various awards he has received the following deserve mention: "Chevalier de l' Ordre des Lettres et des Arts" awarded by the French Minister of Culture (2000), the lifetime achievement award “A. Honneger" (2016) and the "Chevalier de l' Ordre du Mérite Culturel" (2021) awarded to him by Prince Albert II of Monaco.
Upcoming Performances and Events
February 1, 2025
Release: Con figura (Monographic Digital Album)
Publisher/Label: SZ Sugar
Streaming Platforms: YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz, Pandora
Pieces Included:
Due notturni con figura (2007)
Varnelis Variations (2022/23)
Performer: Aldo Orvieto (piano)
Sound Engineer: Alvise Vidolin
February 27, 2025
Location: Lugano, Conservatory of Music
Event: Galileo’s Journey
Ensemble: Ensemble 900 of the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland
Conductor: Francesco Bossaglia
Project Page: Galileo’s Journey on 900presente
April 27, 2025
Location: Lugano, Auditorium 'Stelio Molo' della Radio, via Canevascini 3
Event: Galileo’s Journey (Live Performance)
Ensemble: Ensemble 900 of the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland
Conductor: Francesco Bossaglia
Streaming: The concert will be live-streamed here
May 9, 2025
Location: Massagno, Cinema Lux, via Motta 67 (Lugano area)
Event: Galileo’s Journey (Cinematic Version)
Ensemble: Ensemble 900 of the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland
Conductor: Francesco Bossaglia
Visual Creators: Students of Visual Communication at SUPSI under Andreas Gysin and Sidi Vanetti
Backstage Documentation: David Induni
May 14, 2025
Location: Bari, Teatro Petruzzelli
Event: Secondo Concerto per pf e orchestra
Artists: Filippo Gorini (piano), Pierre-André Valade (conductor)
Orchestra: Orchestra Sinfonica of the Teatro Petruzzelli
September 22-27, 2025
Location: Bari, Festival “Urticanti”
Event: Masterclass and Monographic Concert
Ensemble: Syntax Ensemble
November 24-28, 2025
Location: Tokyo, Istituto Italiano di Cultura
Event: Masterclass and Monographic Concert
November 16, 2025
Location: Florence, Teatro della Pergola
Event: World Premiere of Encore (6th String Quartet)
Ensemble: Quartetto Prometeo
Concert Season: Amici della Musica
Upcoming (Dates TBD)
Location: Not yet established
Event: 'Project Luciano Berio'
Ensemble: Quartetto Prometeo (Prometeo String Quartet)
New Piece: Encore (A tribute to Luciano Berio, with Pierre Boulez as a significant supporter)