February 3, 2024
I’m presenting the spatialized soundscape Wild River at the ZHdK, within an event curated by Jasmine Alakari and Riccardo Acciarino.
December 21, 2023
The project New Song is being presented in Sassari, including my song Senza domande.
December 03-05-07, 2023
Premiere and various performances in Zurich, Locarno and Tilburg of Traces, a new multimedia performance for clarinet, modular synthesizer and live video, featuring the multi-dimensional gestural controller Sabre. Riccardo Acciarino, clarinet.
November 29-30, 2023
HAUNTED with Nemø ensemble at the HERMESstudio, Het Kanaal, Wijnegem. Produced by HERMESensemble, Inspiratum 2023 and Nemø ensemble.
November 23, 2023
Performance of my piece Then Silence, and Stillness, and Night at the Knap Cultural Center in Zagreb by the wonderful Synchronos Ensemble.
November 08-09, 2023
Premiere of my new piece Senza domande in Ittiri and Cagliari (Spaziomusica Festival) by the Ensemble Laborintus. This is a song for voice and ensemble for which I composed both the lyrics and the music. Featuring the unique voice of Marta Raviglia. Commissioned by Associazione Musicale Laborintus.
October 12, 2023
Can You Hear Me? won Best Soundtrack at the International Music Film & Video Festival URTIcanti.
September 24, 2023
Performance of Then Sound, and Motion, and Touch for prepared piano and iPad in Molfetta. Benedetto Boccuzzi (piano), Francesco Vitucci (live electronics).
September 11, 2023
Performance of Déjà-vu #2 for violin and street sounds at Festival URTIcanti. Teresa Dangelico, violin (Six Memos Ensemble).
September 04-10, 2023
Artistic residency at the HERMESstudio (Wijnegem, Belgium) and first tryout of the HAUNTED project with Nemø ensemble.
July 2023
The BabelScores Reading Panel 2023 advised to include my works in the BabelScores Catalogue. The jury was formed by composers Huihui Cheng, Lucas Fagin, Luis Naon, Marco Antonio Suarez, Patricia Alessandrini and Pedro García Velasquez. Happy to start this new exciting collaboration!
January 2023
My piece Then Silence, and Stillness, and Night is a winner of the 2022 Call for Scores of Synchronos Ensemble!
December 30, 2022
The experimental video Can You Hear Me? was screened at the REF – Resilience Festival 2022 in Foggia.
October 18-19, 2022
Happy for a double performance of Uncluttered in Sassari and Nuoro, by the Contemporary Music Ensemble of the Sassari Conservatory. Conductor: Andrea Ivaldi.
September 15, 2022
Haunted for amplified guitar was awarded an honourable mention at the ECHI Festival International Call for Scores.
August 31, 2022
A new, exciting collaboration with Nemø ensemble has started with the concept concert Pendulum, held at the Kint Pianos atelier in Ghent. My pieces Haunted (for amplified guitar), Uncluttered (for ensemble) and Then Silence, and Stillness, and Night (for ensemble) were performed by Nemø conducted by Kevin Hendrickx.
August 27, 2022
My piece I soprammobili di Gustav was broadcast on Rai Radio 3 during the presentation of the CD Call for Scores by Marcello Corti. Check it out!
August 18, 2022
New release of the CD Call for Scores by 19’40” including my piece I soprammobili di Gustav, conceived as a musical sabotage of Mahler’s Lied Des Antonius von Padua Fishpredigt! Played with love by the ensemble Esecutori di Metallo su Carta conducted by Marcello Corti. Artwork by Annalisa Nali Limonta.
July 30, 2022
Two new works premiered at the Foresty International Music Festival in Montaldeo (Italy)! Andrea Zamengo wonderfully performed the multimedia work Mirroring. My new installation Pas de deux was also on display: have a glimpse here!
January 12, 2022
Concierto sin programa: la escucha imprevista (Concert with no program: the unexpected listening). Ricardo Descalzo is performing my composition Then Sound, and Motion, and Touch at the Fundación Juan March in Madrid.
November 29, 2021
A brand new interpretation of my piece for piano and granular synthesis Then Sound, and Motion, and Touch is being presented at the Sassari Conservatory by the pianist and conductor Andrea Ivaldi. This is the final event of the contemporary music festival Musica Nova.
November 26, 2021
Ricardo Descalzo is performing the new version of Then Sound, and Motion, and Touch at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, within the final concert of the masterclass “Composición e interpretación de la música actual” held by Ricardo together with the composer and pianist Gustavo Díaz-Jerez.
November 20, 2021
My video Untitled. Hands on Canvas is featured in the virtual exhibition Audiovisual Frontiers organised by the Department of Music at UC Riverside and the UCR ARTS.
November 5, 2021
The book about artistic research L’instabilità del quesito [The Instability of the Question] edited by Gabriele Manca is being presented at the Milan Conservatory. It features a 30-page essay of mine, titled Around Music. Compositional Paths in The Poe Project. Let’s hope that this book and the international workshops, organized in collaboration with the Orpheus Institute (Ghent), may lead to a wider spread of the artistic research discipline in Italian conservatories!
October 9, 2021
Premiere of Uncluttered by the Contemporary Music Ensemble of the Conservatory of Sassari directed by Andrea Ivaldi. This piece was commissioned in 2020 by the Conservatory of Sassari as a homage to a piece by Franco Oppo (Alcune verità indimostrabili). It was supposed to be performed within an exchange project with the Conservatory of Shanghai that got canceled because of COVID-19. The creative starting point was a quotation of Oppo’s piece, where very few notes are used. In search for essentiality, I decided to build the whole piece on a very reduced set of recurring elements, thinking the musical form as a circle… or a room. Here is the program note:
Uncluttered was crafted as an object of Italian design—or like a carefully furnished room. It is based on transparent lines, accurate details, delicate nuances, logically conceived cross-references between recurring sonic categories. My leading idea was to reject all unnecessary clutter. The range of compositional possibilities was thus significantly narrowed, starting with pitch classes. Anti-expressionistic in style, Uncluttered is nonetheless expressive: it has been strongly influenced by a little-known essay by Edgar Allan Poe, titled The Philosophy of Furniture (https://www.eapoe.org/works/essays/philfurn.htm). In this text, Poe criticises the «perposterous want of keeping», and describes his ideal room in great detail, as «a small and not ostentatious chamber with whose decorations no fault can be found». The deep influence of an essential and beautifully furnished space on the psyche is also highlighted: «What is ultimately haunting about the setting itemized by Poe as ideally conducive to relaxed and imaginative speculation is its ability to evoke, despite its rational organization, its luminous openness and its simplicity, a troubling sense of the unknown» (Dani Cavallaro).
September 18, 2021
Premiere of a new, revised version of Then Sound, and Motion, and Touch by Ricardo Descalzo at the ADDA (Auditorio de la Diputación de Alicante), within the Festival Contemporáneo de Alicante 2021. This version was commissioned by and prepared in collaboration with Ricardo!
September 2021
Happy to be a winner of the super interesting Call for Scores 2021 of 19m40s! My piece is a “sabotage” of Mahler‘s Lied Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt (also recycled in the Scherzo of his Symphony No. 2). It will be performed in concert and recorded by the ensemble Esecutori di Metallo su Carta.
August 6, 2021
Fading was selected as a finalist for best experimental film at the Rome Prisma Independent Film Awards.
July 18-22, 2021
Beauty Cage, my latest work for spatialized ensemble and electronics, will be premiered by the Schallfeld Ensemble as part of an online concert, within the Conference on AI Music Creativity at the University of Music and Performing Arts of Graz.
June 5-6, 2021
Premiere of the new documentary El Quijote de Almagro by Javier Gómez Bello at the Málaga Film Festival, featuring my original soundtrack. Good job Javier!
December 25, 2020
My video Can You Hear Me? was selected and broadcast at the OUA – Electroacoustic Music Festival in Osaka, Japan.
September-December 2020
Screenings of the documentary Malakooti at numerous film festivals, including the following: Salento (Colombia), Festival de Cine en las Montañas 07-14/09/20; Cullera (Spain), Festival K-LIDOSCOPI 19/10/20; Daroca (Spain), Festival de Cine de Daroca 09/11/20; Granada, Festival de Cortometraje Social Edita 01-10/12/20.
September 4, 2020
My audiovisual work Can You Hear Me? was selected at the Sound, Image and Interaction Design Symposium. It is featured on the Exhibition page of the conference website.
August 23-25, 2020
Malakooti was included in the official selection at the Málaga Film Festival 2020.
July 12, 2020
The short film Malakooti by Javier Gómez Bello, featuring my original soundtrack, won the prize for Best Documentary at the Skyline Benidorm Film Festival 2020.
February 27, 2020
Sensibilities (video art version) was selected at the Muslab Festival, and it will be screened in Mexico City at the Centro Cultural España en Mexico.
January 26, 2020
My piece Déjà-vu #1 for percussion ensemble will be opening a Neue Musik concert in Sinsheim, Germany.
October 26, 2019
Noise4Eyes (Pietro Dossena and Miguel Angel Frausto) with the special guest Irina Ghivièr present a special performance and live soundtrack for Ugo Falena’s 1910 short film Salomè, titled Salomè 2 0 1 9 1 0. Crema, Caffè del Museo, 19:30.
September 7, 2019
Premiere of my new piece Red for flute and guitar, by Carlotta Raponi and Pierpaolo Dinapoli, at Salotto in Prova, Milano.
June 30, 2019
Déjà-vu # 1 for percussion ensemble (student level) will be performed at the Musikschule Sinsheim within a program built around the concept of “auricular witness” (Ohrenzeuge). Thanks to the organiser Erwin Schaffer! This piece can be found in the Datenbank Neue Musik.
June 2019
I am deeply honoured to be awarded the “Arnaldo Rancati” Prize by the Rancati Foundation, the City Council of Milano and the Conservatory of Milano.
June 23, 2019
A Fragmented Deity goes to New York! It was selected at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF), the largest showcase of electroacoustic music in New York City, and one of the largest festivals of its kind in the world. It will be performed by Eleonora Claps.
April 28, 2019
Untitled. Hands on Canvas is one of the seven videos selected by the international jury for the 3rd Competition of Audiovisual Compositions promoted by the Department of Composition and Improvisational Performing Arts of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (Tallinn). It will be screened on April 28 within the Festival Commute.
March 21, 2019
Today I will present a conference paper titled Gli Studi del terzo libro e l’ultimo Ligeti: considerazioni sull’ascolto e la visione («The Etudes of the third book and the late Ligeti: remarks about listening and vision») within the round table “Sound and image in XXth-century music and architecture” organised by the Conservatory of Milano (Festival di Primavera 2019, “Musica al quadrato”).
March 20, 2019
NOISE4EYES (Pietro Dossena, Miguel Angel Frausto) live at the Corte dei Miracoli, Milano. Soundtrack for Jean Epstein’s silent film La chute de la maison Usher.
March 2019
My composition Then Silence, and Stillness, and Night for prepared piano and ensemble was released on CD by the magazine Suonare News (n. 258, March 2019).
March 8, 2019
A Fragmented Deity @ Museo del Novecento in Florence. Our homage to the Feminine + the exhibition of wonderful new drawings by Cristiana Palandri.
February 22, 2019
Good news! I have been appointed Professor of Harmony and Analysis at the Conservatory of Sassari, starting from today. Here is my personal page on the institutional website.
February 20, 2019
Performance of my new experimental work In Between, a group performance with augmented reality made with the essential contribution of Omar Peracha and Viva Sanchez. This was part of the Workshop “Another Stage” at the Impuls Festival, Graz.
February 19, 2019
Performance of my miniature Micro Music (for classical guitar) by Mauricio Galeano, within the Special Program “Micro-Music Lab”, Impuls Festival, Graz.
December 7, 2018
Presentation of the paper Multimedia Art and Transmedia Storytelling: the project Sensibilities at the 5th Italian Conference on Artistic Research in Music (“Quinta giornata Italiana della Ricerca Artistica Musicale”), at the Conservatory of Brescia.
November 18, 2018
Milano, Sala Verdi: final presentations of the Workshop on Artistic Research organized by the conservatories of Milan and Florence, in collaboration with the Orpheus Instituut Ghent. I presented my transmedia installation Sensibilities.
October 27, 2018
Premiere of A Fragmented Deity for voice and electronics at Milano Musica.
October 18, 2018
First presentation of Sensibilities in the form of a live performance, prepared in collaboration with Marta Łaska.
September 21, 2018
My piece Et tout le reste for symphonic orchestra is being played in Mexico! It was selected at the 40th Foro Internacional de Música Nueva.
July 25, 2018
I had the pleasure to present my project Sensibilities for the first time in the form of a transmedia installation at the Darmstadt Courses for New Music, within the Workshop on Artistic Research (tutors: Marko Ciciliani and Barbara Lüneburg). Here is a description of my research:
«Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story» (Henry Jenkins, 2007).
My artistic research aims to find possible ways to incorporate some concepts of transmedia storytelling (typically found in big, mainstream productions) in my multimedia works.
Sensibilities is an ongoing project that explores the ambiguity and multidimensionality of perception.
May 2018
The fourth chapter of my audiovisual series Sensibilitiesis done! I made it at the St. Petersburg Kino Kabaret Kino Time. Titled Fading, it is about the sense of smell.
Credits
the woman: Alexandra Pyatkova
the man: Rashid Aitouganov
photography: Peter Lutz
H. Purcell’s aria When I am laid in earth sung by Alexandra Pyatkova
producer: Xenia Zemlyanukhina
direction, video and sound editing: Pietro Dossena
Here is the video!
April 2018
Our collaborative project for soprano and tape A Fragmented Deity, made with Cristiana Palandri and Sahba K. Amiri and drawn upon the last chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses, was selected for performance at the 2018 Festival Milano Musica. It will be premiered on October 27.
March 15 (Chicago) – April 13, 2018 (Sofia)
The international tour of Ricardo Descalzo is bringing my piece Then Sound, and Motion, and Touch to the U.S. and Bulgaria!
March 11, 2018
My latest piece for orchestra Et tout le reste, commissioned by the Milan Conservatory and inspired by Paul Verlaine‘s poetry, will be premiered at the Sala Verdi of the Conservatorio di Milano by the Orchestra Sinfonica del Conservatorio conducted by Deun Lee.
January 12, 2018
The Spanish pianist Ricardo Descalzo played Then Sound, and Motion, and Touch at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, within the Festival Barcelona Modern. He played both the piano and the electronic part (on the iPad), fully integrating acoustic and electroacoustic sounds in his interpretation.
December 3, 2017
Then Sound, and Motion, and Touch for prepared piano and iPad (granular synthesis) was premiered by Benedetto Boccuzzi and me at the URTIcanti Festival held in Bari, Italy. This piece is part of my ongoing series The Poe Project. It was also reshaped into a fully acoustic version for prepared piano and ensemble, titled Then Silence, and Stillness, and Night, premiered last June (see below for more information). Here is a presentation of the work:
The title is a quotation from Edgar Allan Poe’s tale The Pit and the Pendulum, set in a dungeon of the Spanish Inquisition. The tale’s main character explores the dark prison, searching for a way out. In absence of the sense of sight, it is hearing that guides the perception of time and space. Every single sound becomes an instrument of knowledge bringing more definition to the mental map of the place… but perception can be illusory. This piece is a nocturne, seen as “a piece set at night”: a dark space inhabited by sounds that shape different plausible dramaturgies.
November 10-12, 2017
My audiovisual work Untitled. Hands on Canvas has been selected for screening at the international colloquium Sound / Image: Exploring sonic and audio-visual practice that will be held at the University of Greenwich, UK.
October 14, 2017
My piece Come di luna for soprano and ensemble, set to a poem by Pier Paolo Pasolini, has been awarded the first prize at the XXV International Music Competition “Vittoria Caffa Righetti”.
October 2017
My piece Suite meteorologica (“Weather Suite”) for young pianists was awarded a special mention at the International Composition Competition “Ettore Pozzoli” 2017. This was the only piece in its category (5-8 years old) to obtain such award — no piece reported any major prize this year — and it will be performed at the 2018 Piano Competition “Il Pozzolino”. Suite meteorologica is part of an original new book for young pianists, prepared in collaboration with my former piano teacher Biancamaria Piantelli, that will be ready very soon! The provisional title is Pianisti senza note (“Pianists without notes”). Sounds cool, right?
October 8, 2017
I took part in a performance of butoh dance with live music at the Espressioni Film Festival at the Teatro S. Domenico in Crema, Italy. Here I played live electronics and… a mbira 🙂 Parts 1 and 2 of my ongoing audiovisual project Sensibilities are also screened throughout the festival (Oct. 7 to 20).
September 2017
Some good news! My piece Come di luna for soprano and ensemble was awarded a special mention at the National Prize for Arts (Premio Nazionale delle Arti) 2016.
September 2017
Now my little series of Déjà-vus (2010-11) is finally published at Ars Publica! N. 1 is for a percussion ensemble of student level, N. 2 is my most dadaist piece, for violin and street sounds.
July 27, 2017
My last experimental short film Untitled. Hands on Canvas, made at the Kinokabaret in Lublin (Poland), was screened at the final event held on the beautiful Bridge of Culture. It is part of an ongoing project about the 5 senses titled Sensibilities: after the sense of sight (Vision), this is the sense of touch. Thanks to Abraham Weinrich for realising my choreography with such precision, and to Wojciech Olchowski for his help with camera and lights. See also my soundtrack page to watch the other short films made in Lublin featuring my music.
July 2, 2017
Alessandro Baldessari and I made an original soundtrack for Samuel Beckett‘s play Krapp’s Last Tape, performed at Teatro Binario 7 in Monza. Our music included both electroacoustic tracks and a live performance featuring Mohammadreza Bornak (setar) and Cecilia Santo (cello).
June 30, 2017
Vision, my abstract short video inspired by Diderot’s Encyclopédie, was selected for screening at the festival “A Minimal View” held in Padua from the 3rd to the 30th of June. This screenshot was also used as the main image of the festival.
June 9, 2017
My last piece Then Silence, and Stillness, and Night for prepared piano and ensemble was awarded the first prize at the “Premio del Conservatorio 2017”. It has been premiered by the mdi ensemble at the Milan Conservatory on June 9. The prize consists in 5.000 euros for the commission of an orchestral piece to be premiered next year. The awarded piece will be recorded and released on CD for the magazine “Suonare News”.
May 27, 2017
Happy to contribute to the final event of the Franco Agostino Teatro Festival in my home town Crema (Italy). Children and teenagers from local schools will move and dance to a few pieces of mine in different styles: an electronic groove, a dreamy piece, a ragtime. The final song, that will be sung by hundredths of children, is a playful remix of some Beethoven quotations such as Für Elise and the beginning of the 5th Symphony (lyrics by the amazing Nicola Cazzalini).
March 2017
My piece Déjà-vu 1 for percussion ensemble has been selected to be included in the Datenbank Neue Musik, a database for contemporary music listing works by contemporary composers which are suitable for school practice and ensemble work.
November 26, 2016
My video The Light-House is being screened at the Diffrazioni Festival in Florence at 10pm. Here is a short description of the work:
“The Light-House” is an experimental short film drawn upon the last, unfinished tale by Edgar Allan Poe. In 1849, the year of his death, Poe wrote 4 pages of the so-called “Griswold” manuscript, where the draft for this incomplete tale is found. It is in the form of a diary kept by the new lighthouse keeper, who has just arrived in such a remote and solitary place. The main aesthetic and cultural reference for this work (for which I made both the audio and the video) is the silent cinema of the 1920s and 30s, and in particular its abstract and non-narrative experiments. The original text has been reduced to a few, significant excerpts that form a wandering and vague narrative, ending in the final dissolution. All images were made using home-made objects and old-fashioned optical special effects.
October 31, 2016
A new project: making live soundtracks for silent films! Together with the composer and performer Miguel Angel Frausto we made a new original soundtrack for Jean Epstein’s 1928 film La chute de la maison Usher. It was performed at a special event dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe, organised by the Amenic Cinema club in Crema. We played both electronic and acoustic instruments… including sound-making objects! Here is the trailer of our performance. The name of our duo is NOISE4EYES.
November 19, 2016
La ragazza Carla, the documentary by Alberto Saibene with my music, will be broadcast on the channel Rai Storia at 10pm.
September 2016
My last musicological essay on Ligeti’s Etude White on White has been published on the online journal Analitica. The abstract can be found here. Enjoy!
August 5, 2016
My piece Haunted for amplified guitar has been played at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik by the wonderful Ruben Mattia Santorsa. Here is the live recording of the piece!
April 2016
A nice surprise in the mailbox: the printed edition of Déjà-vu 2 for violin and street sounds, by Ars Publica. Love the folding sheet!
March 21, 2016
Mahlers Fische, my divertissement for ensemble based on Mahler’s Lied Des Antonius Von Padua Fischpredigt, was included in a delightful concert featuring shadow puppets, held at the Milan Conservatory.
February 26, 2016
My piece Edgar’s Visions has been selected for an open rehearsal in Milan with the Ensemble Shallfeld, ensemble in residence at the 2016 Darmstadt International Summer Course. Can’t wait to hear the piece!
December 19, 2015
Good news! Today I am starting to work as a Professor of Harmony and Music Theory at the Conservatorio “Lorenzo Perosi” in Campobasso, Italy.
December 2015
The recording of my orchestral piece Buildings is now available on Soundcloud at this link. Thanks again to the orchestra and the conductor for the amazing job!
September 30, 2015
I have been selected by the Italian music journalist Paola Maugeri as an emerging talent for the interesting project My Music Coffee by the Sicilian coffee makers Moak. My music is currently associated with the “classic” coffee capsules, and it can be listened via a QR code.
Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 18:30, Libreria Feltrinelli in Napoli (Piazza dei Martiri) – I will be playing the selected piece Music Box and other recent music for piano and electronics!
September 18, 2015
The film “La ragazza Carla”, drawn upon a beautiful poem by Elio Pagliarani, is being premiered tonight at 21:30 at the Mare Culturale Urbano (via F.lli Zoia 10, Milano).
“La ragazza Carla”
with Carla Chiarelli and Elio
directed by A. Saibene
a project by Luca Bigazzi, Carla Chiarelli, Carlotta Cristiani, Gianfilippo Pedote, Simone Pera, Alberto Saibene
edited by Maria Chiara Piccolo and Carlotta Cristiani
produced by Gianfilippo Pedote
photography by Luca Bigazzi and Simone Pera
drawings by Gabriella Giandelli
original soundtrack by Pietro Dossena
July 2015
Working on the soundtrack for the film “La ragazza Carla” by Alberto Saibene. This is my very portable studio: a MacBook Pro for the editing in Logic Pro X, an audio interface, a keyboard, an iPad with a few supercool music apps, headphones and monitors.
February 5, 2015
My orchestral piece Buildings won the annual call for scores at the Conservatory of Milano. It will be premiered at the Sala Verdi by the Orchestra Sinfonica del Conservatorio. The invited conductor is the wonderful Tito Ceccherini! The concert programme is found here.
October 24, 2014
My electroacoustic piece Santa Barbara Portraits, selected as a finalist in the 2014 Luigi Russolo Contest, was awarded the Gianfranco Maffina Mention for the innovation in the composition. It was played in the final concert at the MACBA in Barcelona on Oct. 24 (Festival LEM). It will also be played at the Studio Forum acousmonium during the Le Bruit de la Neige Festival, and it will receive airplay on the Música i Geografia and Música i Química radio programmes, on Barcelona’s FM frequency, Radio France, Radio Libertaire (Paris), … The piece will also be included in a CD to be released by Monochromevision (Moscow) in Jan. 2015.
August 4-16, 2014
I attended the Synthetis International Summer Course for Composers in Radziejowice, Poland. It has been a wonderfully enriching experience! Here is a nice group photo taken by Adam Walanus.
At the final concert, held on Aug. 15, the accordionist Maciej Frackiewicz beautifully played my latest piece Sonnet 104, inspired by a Shakespeare sonnet (listen).
Pietro Dossena 
