Sannicandro Valerio

Valerio Sannicandro was born in Bisceglie (Italy) on January 16th, 1971. 
In 1987, he begins to study viola (under the supervision of Piero Farulli, Alfonso Ghedin and Csaba Erdelyí) and composition (under Michelangelo Lupone). In 1994 he receives his Viola Diploma with distinction, and starts a career as a performer, both as a soloist and chamber musician; in the same year, his compositions are performed for the first time (for example a piece for Viola and Live Electronics).
In 1995 he moves to Germany and dedicates more and more to contemporary music: he obtains a post-graduate degree in Viola at the Folkwang Hochschule of Essen and attends workshops given by Barbara Maurer (Ensemble Recherche) and Garth Knox (ex Arditti Quartet); the meeting with the latter has a significant influence on his future performance activity. He gives numerous solo recitals, playing works by Sciarrino, Maderna, Grisey, Murail and Scelsi. 
After a period dedicated almost exclusively to his performance career, he attends a workshop held by Vinko Globokar and Johannes Kalitzke. On his teachers' advice he continues further his composition studies, in Cologne, under York Höller's supervision, and graduates in 2000 with a dissertation on the different aspects of semiotics in relation to musical composition (Komposition als semiotischer Prozess). Moreover, he studies conducting with Peter Eötvös in the Institute for Contemporary Music of the Musikhochschule and makes his debut with the WDR Orchestra in the premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Hoch-Zeiten. He works as a conductor for the Triennale of Cologne, the Darmstadt Ferienkurse, the Festival of the Canary Islands (Spain) and the Festival Acanthes of Avignon. Since 1997, several compositions by Sannicandro are performed in Germany and Italy, and the author receives commissions from many ensembles, as well as from the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Donaueschinger Musiktage.
He participates to various workshops, given by Helmut Lachenmann, Jonathan Harvey, Magnus Lindberg; at the same time, he continues his studies under Hans Zender in Frankfurt and attends a course on Electronic Music with Dirk Reith in Essen, later studying privately with Emmanuel Nunes in Paris.
He wins several competitions for composition, in Germany (Leipzig, Rostock, Frankfurt and MUSICA VIVA-Monaco 2002, among others) and Italy (Udine); besides, he receives a grant from the CDMC of Paris, as well as the "Kranichsteiner Musikpreis 2000" from the Darmstadt Ferienkurse. He holds seminars on his works at the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin and at the Music Academy of Prague and in 2002 he teaches at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse. He receives a "Arbeitsstipendium" from the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung for the year 2003. He is invited to the composition course at the IRCAM, where he later works as compositeur associé with a research team on the concept of spatialisation.
His works have been performed in Italy, Germany, France, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden, United States and Japan, by performers such as Salome Kammer, Peter Veale, Marco Blaaw, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Kroumata, Musikfabrik NRW, Ensemble Aleph, Ensemble Resonanz, Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Hilversum Radio Kamerorkest; and conducted by Peter Eötvös, Jonathan Stockhammer, Renato Rivolta, Peter Hirsch, Pierre-André Valade; recorded and broadcasted by various radio stations (HR, MDR, WDR, BR, Radio Bremen) and released on CD. 
A new work for two ensembles and electronics (Ircam-Ensemble Intercontemporain, Paris 2007) and a commission from the choir "Accentus" (Paris 2007) are among his future projects. A CD including pieces for ensemble conducted by the composer himself is available from the Telos Records. His works are published by the Edizioni Suvini Zerboni - SugarMusic S.p.A., Milan.

http://www.valeriosannicandro.eu