| Michele Biasutti (Italia) President of the Jury - Composer and Psychologist, he was awarded diplomas at the Padova Conservatory of music. A prize-winning composer (International Composer Competition L. Russolo, International Competition of Bourges, Concour International de Composition de la Societé de Musique Contemporaine du Québec, International Competition Pierre Schaeffer, ...), his works were radio broadcast (RAI, ORF, RNE 2, Radio Bratislava, RTSI, HRT, Radio Canada) and selected for International Festivals (ISEA '95 in Montreal, ISEA '96 in Rotterdam, Soundbox in Helsinki, VI BSCM in Rio de Janeiro, JIM'99 in Paris, VII BSCM in Curitiba). His music was performed in Festivals in European cities (Music Now in Dublin, Purcell Room in London, Fondazione Levi in Venice, 31st International Music Festival in Opatija, 18° Festival Internacional de mùsica contemporànea in Valencia, Tempo di Pratolino in Florence, Aspekte in Salzburg, Triduum in Klagenfurt, Society for new music in Prague, Concerts à la Villa Gillet in Lyon, Musiques d'aujourd'hui in Marseille, Neue Musik in Freiburg; Encuentros mùsica europea in Madrid...), in North and South America (M.I.T. in Boston, SMCQ in Montreal, San Francisco State University in S. Francisco, University of Maryland in Baltimore...) and in Australia (Interfaces, ACMC 2000 in Brisbane). He collaborated with International Centers for electronic music. He is active as music organizer, currently scientific director of the Computer Art Festival in Padova. He has taught at the Conservatories of Novara and Venice and is researcher at Padova University. His music is recorded on Compact disc Artis-Cramps (ARCD 062, Polygram distribution), Fondazione Russolo-Pratella (Ef. Er. P94), Rivo Alto (CRR 9511, CRR 9610, Electa and Ducale distribution), and Accademia Musicale Pescarese (MV001). Michele Biasutti specialized in ecological music, music which seeks to return to the essential elements of human nature, re-evaluating the primary sphere of human auditory perception. He is interested in the relationship between scientific thought and the logic of music, applying the results to his composition and research. Biasutti has composed for theater, for chamber ensembles and for orchestra. His works for instruments and live electronics deepens the possibilities of interaction between technological developments and instrumental resources. Michele Biasutti PhD is an Associate professor at Padova University, where he conducts research in psychology of music and music education. Among his research topics there are the cognitive processes in composition and improvisation, on-line music learning and the education of music teachers. He is proposing an approach to music education based on the development of processes rather than products. He is scientific director of research projects, he is a member of the editorial board of journals and he has published articles in international peer-reviewed journals. He was the scientific director of the international conferences Psychology and Music Education (PME04) and Training Music Teachers (TMT07) and author of seven books. He is President of the Italian Society for Music Education. |
| Bernardino Beggio (Italia) has studied at the Padova Music Conservatoire and afterwards in Poland at the Music Academy of Cracow with a grant of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has started to compose after many years’ experience of directing the Italian vanguard group Interensemble, as pianist, conductor and music organizer. From 1983 to 2011 he performed and conducted more than 500 concerts, mostly of contemporary music, in different European and American Countries. As a pianist and conductor he recorded 17 CDs for different labels (Edipan, Artis Cramps, Rivoalto, Taukay, Naxos). He has composed music for chamber groups and solo instruments, for string orchestra and for wind instruments, for theatre and for experimental cinema. His music has been performed in most european countries and USA and broadcast from the national radio networks of Belgium, Croatia, Rumenia, Spain as well as from Italian Rai. He has been requested for engagements from the Theatre Européen de Musique Vivante, from Antidogma Musica in Turin and Senigallia Musica Nuova Festival. He has been teaching piano in different Italian Conservatories since 1981, and he has been invited for lectures on Italian Contemporary Music by prestigious music schools like Sibelius Akatemia, Salonicco Conservatoire, Rutgers University, University of Massachusetts, New York University, Boston Berklee College of Music. He has been a member of the Jury in the International Composition Contest Città di Udine since 1998 and the President of the Jury in the International Piano Contest New Music for New Pianist in 1996. Since 1984 he is the artistic director of the Computer Art Festival of Padova. Since 2003 he is in the academic staff and currently also in the Academic Senate of the Conservatorio Steffani, Castelfranco Veneto. |
| Javier Torres Maldonado (Messico) A composer whose work clearly shows the complete integration of strict compositional technics and the possibilities resulting from new technology, Javier Torres Maldonado studied counterpoint, fugue and composition with José Suárez (a student of Domenico Bertolucci, Perpetual Maestro di Cappella at the Sistine Chapel and of the great Italian organist Fernando Germani) at the National Conservatory of Music of Mexico and with Alessandro Solbiati and Sandro Gorli at the Conservatory of Milan. He is considered as one of the most important pupils of Franco Donatoni's, but he also pursued his musical training with Ivan Fedele (First Price, National Conservatory of Strasbourg) and Azio Corghi (National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome). He studied electroacoustic music at the Conservatory of Milan and at IRCAM (computer music course). Author of more than 50 pieces written for the best performers who specialise in contemporary music, such as the Arditti Quartet, Danel Quartet, Ensemble 2E2M, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble 2e2m, Ensemble Aleph, Mario Caroli, Pascal Contet, Armand Angster, Carlo Chiarappa, the only musical field he has not explored yet is Opera. His pieces have been awarded prestigious international composition prizes, most notably Reine Elisabeth (2005, Brussels), Mozart (1997 and 2000, Salzburg), Reine Maria Jose (2000, Geneva), GRAME (2006, mixed musics, Lyon), Alfredo Casella (2001, Sienna), Ad Referendum II (1999, Montreal), Musi- cians Price (1999, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne), International Forum for Young Composers (Ensemble Aleph, 2003). A very active professor in the fields of composition and new technologies, he was tenured professor of electroacoustic composition at the Conservatory of Milan and currently holds the same position at the Conservatory of Parma in Italy. |
| Özkan Manav (Turchia) is one of the most prolific Turkish composers of his generation. Amongst his teachers were influential Turkish composers such as Adnan Saygun and Ilhan Usmanbaş. In addition, he worked with American composers Lukas Foss and Marjorie Merryman at Boston University where he earned his DMA. Manav’s music has been performed in around 20 countries, and was issued on several CDs in Turkey, Germany and USA. His pieces have been performed by ensembles such as Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Moskva New Music Ensemble, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s 10:10 Ensemble, Philharmoniker Hamburg Kammerensemble, Eastman School of Music Percussion Ensemble, and ALEA III. He has received several composition prizes, amongst them the Nejat Eczacıbaşı National Composition Competition (shared 1st prize, 1998), the BMW musica viva Composition Prize (2nd prize, 1998), the Deutsche Welle Composition Prize (2002), Sofia 2010 International Composition Competition (1st prize), Arioso Musica Domani International Composition Prize (1st prize, 2010), as well as the Donizetti 2011 - Composer of the Year Prize (Turkey). He currently serves as a Professor of Composition and chair person of the Composition and Orchestral Conducting Program at the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory in Istanbul. |
| Born in Los Angeles, Daniel Kessner (USA) studied with Henri Lazarof at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his Ph.D. with Distinction in 1971. In 1970, he was appointed to the music faculty of California State University, Northridge. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Music, retired in 2006. Biographical articles appear in at least 15 reference works, the most important of which are Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (New York), The International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory (Cambridge, England), Dictionary of International Biography (Cambridge, England), Who's Who in the West (Chicago), Contemporary American Composers (Boston), and Who's Who in American Music; Classical (New York). His compositions have received numerous prizes, the most important of which are the Queen Marie-José International Composition Prize (Geneva, 1972), two Broadcast Music Prizes (New York, 1970 & 1971), four CSUN President's Associates Prizes for Creative Achievement (1975, 1989, 1994, 2001), selection as one of three winners of the New Works for Music Theater Project, an international competition co-sponsored by the Netherlands Opera Foundation, Utrecht Symphony Orchestra, Gaudeamus Foundation, and Holland Festival (Amsterdam, 1980), and most recently winner of the Music08/eighth blackbird Composition Competition 2008, Cincinnati. His works have received over 600 public performances throughout the Americas, Canada, Asia, and Europe. Kessner has appeared three times as Guest Conductor of the Black Sea Philharmonic of Constanţa, Romania, and he has conducted six concerts with the Black Sea New Music Ensemble during Romanian-American Music Days. He also conducted five concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group during the 1984 through 1991 seasons, including the West Coast Premiere of Elliott Carter's In Sleep, In Thunder, and individual concerts with the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Orchestra of the Universidade do Miho, the Monday Evening Concerts Ensemble (Los Angeles), the North/South Consonance Ensemble (New York), and many others. He made his first appearance as Guest Conductor of the Louisiana Sinfonietta in November of 1999. He is also the Founder and former Director of The Discovery Players (formerly the New Music Ensemble) of California State University, Northridge, with whom he presented more than one hundred concerts since 1970. For the Spring 2005 semester he was appointed Guest Conductor of the Moorpark Symphony Orchestra. In 2010, he inaugurated the ensemble TEMPO (The Epicenter Music Performance Organization), in which he serves as flutist and conductor. |