Massimiliano Messieri

Massimiliano Messieri was born in Bologna in 1964. He has a doctorate in composition, electronic music and violoncello. He was selected to take part in the specialization courses in composition at the Music Academy of Fiesole held by G. Manzoni (1991–1992) and at the Academie d’Eté of the IRCAM held by T. Murail and P. Manoury (Paris, 1993–1994).

He is interested in all contemporary arts and has focused his music research in particular on the interaction with these arts. This is the reason behind the ballets with the Chorea Dance Company: Espressione I (Bologna, 1994), Quintetto (Bergamo, 1994), Tarkìz (Bologna, 1995) and Cabaret selvaggio (Milan, 1999) with the Pierpaolo Koss Dance Company.

In 1994, together with the artist D. Carati, he organised in Bologna the artistic project Art Difference – ipotesi di interazioni e coincidenze di Opere Prime di Pittori, Scultori, Compositori e Poeti and in 1996 the art book Reazioni Interattive (D. Carati – M. Messieri), curated by L. Pestalozza and P. Serra Zanetti, was published.

In 1997, the International Festival Italian Mozart Association (IFIMA) in Rovereto commissioned him, under the aegis of the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg, the work Don Giovanni, the redeemed rake (1998).

In 2000, the National Research Institute for Material Physics (INFM) commissioned him, for the INFMeeting 2000, the work Leonids’ play (composition for 5 magnetic tapes based on the real sound of the Leonids provided by NASA). In 2002, the Kunstverein of Aschersleben commissioned him the work Sojour in Leipzig (12 music portraits for violoncello and piano).

In 2004, he was commissioned the opera Gretchens Traum, performed at the Ettersburg Castle (Weimar).

In 2004 he founded, with the saxophonist M. Selva, the Duo Messieri/Selva (saxophone and live electronics) in order to promote contemporary learning like S. Bussotti, John Cage, T. Riley, J.C. Risset, G. Scelsi, etc. He recorded with Duo Messieri/Selva two audio cd "Noises X" (Drycastle Records, 2007) and "MA$KEN" (Drycastle Records, 2009).

He won the first prize in the International Competition of Composition 2 Agosto (Bologna, 1997), 100 note (New York, 2006) and various national prizes. Since 2009 he is the artistic director of the MASKFEST (San Marino International Festival of New Music) and the San Marino Ensemble. He actively participated in the first edition of Terra Fertile, national meeting of electronic music (L’Aquila, 1994) and in the 11th and 13th Colloquio di Informatica Musicale (Bologna, 1995; Gorizia, 1998). His scores were commissioned and performed at the Town Theatre in Bologna and Ferrara, at the Festival delle Nazioni in Rome, at the Festival of Città di Castello, at the International Festival Italian Mozart Association in Rovereto, at the Regional Parliament of Sachsen in Dresden, at the Martinu Hall in Prague, at the Schlosskirche in Ettersburg (Weimar), at the White Hall of the Ettersburg Castle (Weimar), at the Festival dei Due Mondi (Spoleto), IIC (Hamburg, Copenhagen and Prague), 1° and 2° International Piano Competition in Republic of San Marino, Forfest Festival in Kromeriz, oh-ton in Oldenburg, Westwerk in Leipzig, Cracovia Sacra in Cracow, ArtX Detroit at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit, Spectrum Foundation in New York and in other festivals of new music. He lives in San Marino, where he is Professor at the Istituto Musicale Sammarinese since 2002.