Pietro Dossena is an internationally active composer and multimedia artist, particularly interested in exploring inter-art relationships from a poetic and semiotic standpoint. 

He studied with Sonia Bo and Alessandro Solbiati at the Milan Conservatory, completing the Master’s degree in Composition with the highest grade, honors and mention. He also studied with Salvatore Sciarrino at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and with Joel Feigin and Clarence Barlow at the University of California in Santa Barbara. He has been selected in numerous international workshops and courses in contemporary music, presenting his works to composers such as B. Ferneyhough, P. Billone, F. Filidei, D. Kourliandski. His compositional activity is reflected in his theoretical interest in the creative process of composers, culminating in a doctoral thesis at the University of Padua, as well as analytical and musicological essays, published in peer-reviewed journals (Analitica, Journal of the Royal Musical Association). He has spent extended periods of study, work and research in Paris, S. Barbara (California) and Granada. His teaching experiences at the university level took place at institutions such as the University of Milan and the Conservatory of Sassari, where he is a Full Professor of Music Theory, Composition and Multimedia.

He has received numerous international composition awards, including the Prix Luigi Russolo 2014 (special award “for the innovation in the composition”), the Premio Valentino  Bucchi 2009 and the Corwin Awards for Excellence in Music Composition 2009. In 2017 he was awarded the First Prize for Composition at the Milan Conservatory, and an Honourable Mention at the National Prize for Arts of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. In 2019 he received the prestigious Arnaldo Rancati Prize from the Rancati Foundation and the Milan City Council.

Pietro’s music has been commissioned and performed by leading ensembles, orchestras and soloists such as Nemø ensemble, Esecutori di Metallo su Carta, Schallfeld Ensemble, Quartetto Prometeo, mdi Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Orchestra Sinfonica del Conservatorio di Milano conducted by Deun Lee and Tito Ceccherini, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad de Guanajuato, Riccardo Acciarino, Ricardo Descalzo, Benedetto Boccuzzi, Ruben Mattia Santorsa, Fanny Vicens, Maciej Frackiewicz, Marco Fusi, Luis Bacalov.

His recent projects include Haunted, a multimedia concert premiered by Nemø ensemble at the Festival Inspiratum 2023; Beauty Cage for spatialized ensemble and electronics, premiered by Schallfeld Ensemble at the Conference on AI Music Creativity 2021; Sensibilities, a transmedia installation based on a series of videos that have been screened all over the world. He has started a series of collaborative pieces for solo instrument, modular synthesizer and live visuals. 

His works have been featured in many concerts and festivals around the world, including the following: Alicante (ADDA), Barcelona (Mixtur, MACBA, Fundació Miró), Bari (URTIcanti), Cagliari (Spazio-musica), Chicago (Roosevelt University), Darmstadt (Ferienkurse), Córdoba (Festival Internacional de Música Contemporánea), Florence (Diffrazioni, Museo Novecento), Foggia (Resilience Festival), Granada (Real Conservatorio Superior, MAHS, Fundación Euroárabe), Graz (Mumuth, Impuls), Guanajuato (FIMNME), Locarno (GranRex), London (University of Greenwich, Guildhall School), Lublin (KinoReset), Madeira (Sound, Image and Interaction Design Symposium), Madrid (Fundación Juan March, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando), Málaga (Málaga Film Festival), Mexico City (MUSLAB), Milan (Milano Film Festival, Milano Musica, Teatro Dal Verme, Sala Verdi, Sala Puccini), Munich (City Kinos), New York (New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival), Oldenburg (Carl von Ossietzky University), Osaka (Osaka University of Arts), Padua (A Minimal View), Reggio Emilia (Compositori a confronto), Riverside (Audiovisual Frontiers), S. Barbara (Primavera, University of California), Sassari (Musica Nova), Siena (Accademia Chigiana), Sofia (Bulgarian National Radio), Stockholm (Fringe Festival), Tallinn (International Competition of Audiovisual Compositions), Turin (Teatro Vittoria, Nesxt), Vicenza (Teatro Olimpico), Vienna (Stadtkino), Wijnegem (Inspiratum), Zagreb (Knap), Zurich (ZHdK).

His scores are available on BabelScores.