2024
What
«Composing Nature», now arrived at its fourth edition, is a composition masterclass focusing on percussion instruments. It is open to students and composers of any nationality and it takes place in Lavarone, a beautiful town on the mountains in northern Italy. Admitted participants will have the opportunity of working on a piece for percussions together with two tutors and a percussion ensemble, taking inspiration from the local territory’s features and history.
Who
The institutions involved in this project are: Conservatorio di Musica “C. Pollini” di Padova, Comune di Lavarone, APT Alpe Cimbra and Taverna Maderna.
Italian composer Giovanni Bonato and percussionist Massimo Pastore will be the tutors. Art Percussion Ensemble, directed by prof. Pastore, will be the ensemble in residence.
For any information on the course you can contact Leonardo Mezzalira at info@tavernamaderna.it.
When
From August 21st to August 29th, 2024.
Where
The course will take place in Lavarone, a municipality of the district of Trento, around 1100 meters above sea level. The spaces for the activities will be provided by Comune di Lavarone; during the week the participants will be offered the opportunity to explore the local territory through walks and trips accompanied by an expert guide.
How
· Applications are open until June 30th, 2024. After the deadline, selection of participants will be carried on as soon as possible.
· Admitted composers will then be invited to pay the contribution for the course (€ 350,00 in total). Students currently enrolled in any courses of the “C. Pollini” Conservatory of Padua are exempt from the contribution.
· Participants need to take care of transportation and lodging themselves. For information and advice it is possible to contact the organization or the local tourist office (alpecimbra.it).
· All participants will receive a portfolio of materials relating to the territory of Lavarone and the Cimbrian Alps, which they can refer to as they are asked to imagine a piece that directly or indirectly refers to the territory, its history, its visual and sound landscape.
· All participants are advised to prepare a sketch or project of their piece in advance (see the guidelines below).
· During the first days of the course, theoretical and practical lessons will be held on percussion writing and repertoire, and short outings may be planned to get to know the area (it is recommended to bring suitable clothing). Participants will work on their own piece under the supervision of the teachers.
· Starting from Sunday 25 August the ensemble will be present in residence, rehearsing the pieces written by the participants. Some of the proposed pieces will be performed at the final concert, scheduled for August 29, 2024.
The application form must be completed, signed, and sent by e-mail to info@tavernamaderna.it. The same e-mail must contain the following attachments:
– Copy of an ID of the participant;
– 1 to 3 recent scores in PDF format (should they be of big dimension an online transfer service can be used)
– A short CV.
Admitted participants will be informed about how to transfer the 350€ contribution.
It is possible to attend the lessons as a listener, by filling out the relevant form and paying the registration fee (€150 for the entire course, €30 daily admission, no cost for students of the “C. Pollini” Conservatory of Padua). There is no deadline for applications to participate as listeners.
All lessons, rehearsals and other activities will be scheduled on site. At the end of the course all active students will receive a certificate and the performances will be recorded and filmed.
Guidelines for active participants
All pieces composed by the participants should be around 3 minutes long and require max 4 performers. Available instruments:
Marimba (5 octaves) – Vibraphone (4 octaves) – Concert bass drum – 3 Tam-Tams (low, medium, high) – 4 Cymbals – 3 Drums (1 piccolo, 1 Snare Drum, 1 Side Drum) – 4 Tom-Toms – 3 Bongos pairs – 1 Congas pair – 2 Cowbells – 2 Woodblocks – 3 Dobachis.
Small instruments, instruments provided by the composer and easy-to-procure objects can be added to the instrumentation by informing the organization.
To facilitate stage changes during the final concert, some instruments will be placed in a fixed position for the entire concert (as below). The other instruments can be freely assigned to the stations marked with an asterisk. Of course, participants are not obliged to use all four stations: they can use a subset of the available instruments and instrumentalists.
For any information about the instrumentation please contact Leonardo Mezzalira at info@tavernamaderna.it
PARTNER
THE TUTORS
THE ENSEMBLE
PROFILES
Giovanni Bonato (1961) studied Composition with Fabio Vacchi, Adriano Guarnieri and Giacomo Manzoni. He is active in the fields of chamber music, choral music and symphonic composition and his work was awarded a large number of national and international prizes (“A.Casella”, “G. d’Arezzo”, Città di Trieste, “G. Contilli”, I.C.O.N.S., 2 Agosto, Rhein-Ruhr, “G. Petrassi”, 50th Tokyo Met. Go., Wiener Int. Kw., Schiedmayer Preis, “F. Evangelisti”, “Uuno Klami” Competition, Prix “Reine Marie José”, Premio “Reina Sofia”, Premio “F. Siciliani”, “K. Szymanowski” Prize among others). His works were perfromed by famous interpreters such as Quartetto Arditti, Kazushi Ono, A. Tamayo, G. Neuhold, Ex Novo Ensemble, H. Starreveld, D. Callegari, M. Brunello, F.M. Bressan, Athestis Chorus, D. Nordio, S. Tasca, L. Slatkin, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, F. Erle, Duo Alterno, Estonian National Male Choir, A. Soots, J. Nikkola, E. Ericson, World Youth Choir, F. Sjöberg, Ensemble Vocal Séquence, L. Gay, Coro e Orchestra dell’Acc. N. di S. Cecilia, M. Buchberger, L. Segerstam, Tower Voices New Zealand, Kymi Sinfonietta, Y. Shinozaki, Coenobium Vocale, J. Berger, D. Zaltron, S. Kuret, Vokalna Ak. Ljubljana, J. L. Temes, Coro e Orchestra della RTVE, M. Pastore, F. Gamba, E. Bronzi, St. Jacob’s Chamber Choir, G. Graden, Tone Tomšic. He was appointed “composer in residence” by Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto (art. dir M. Brunello) during the 2002-2003 concert season, and “guest composer” in 2011 Asiagofestival; his compositions were broadcasted by many major European radios and TVs and were published by companies such as Ricordi, Rugginenti, Agenda, Salabert, A Coeur Joie, Edition Ferrimontana, Ed. Fondazione G. d’Arezzo, Suvini-Zerboni, Ed. Feniarco, Astrum, V. Nickel Musikverlag, Helbling Verlag. He is often invited as member of jury by important international composition competitions. He is currently teaching Composition at the “C. Pollini” Conservatory of Padua.
Versatile musician skilled on several percussion instruments, Massimo Pastore graduated with honours in Ferrara and attended post-graduation courses in Denmark with Gert Mortensen and Einar Nielsen; he also studied, among others, with David Searcy. Since 1986 he works as a professional percussionist with several chamber music ensembles and orchestras (he collaborated also with the Royal Danish Orchestra and with “Wiener Akademie”), with a repertoire which ranges from ancient and baroque music to contemporary music premieres. He took part to Nuovo Gruppo Italiano di Percussioni in many projects, concerts, and recordings along with conductors as Laslo Heltay, Thomas Dausgaard, Antonio Ballista, Sergio Balestracci and soloists and composers as Giovanni Bonato, Mario Brunello, Gert Mortensen, Ennio Morricone and Vladimir Mendelssohn. In 1995 he founded the Art Percussion Ensemble, composed of students and former students of the Conservatory of Padova, which played in Padova, Copenhagen, Krakow, Turin, Siena, Bologna, Udine etc. He teached in many masterclasses; as a teacher and performer he worked in the University of Thessaloniki, and in the Academies of Music of Copenhagen, Krakow, Riga, Brno, Valencia, and Istanbul. From 2012 to 2014 he took part as a teacher to the european project ‘ASTAPER’ in Krakow; in 2015 he was head percussion teacher at ‘SMUG’, a project focused on contemporary music and he worked on scores by G. Grisey, E. Varèse, K. Stockhausen and Y. Xenakis; in 2016 he teached at the Percussion Festival in Gdansk (PL). He collaborated with international artists as Marta Argerich, Raymond Gujot, Gert Mortensen, Astor Piazzolla, Ney Rosauro. His solo repertoire for performances and recordings includes works by Keiko Abe, John Beck, Klaus Peter Bruchmann, Stefano Bellon, Giovanni Bonato, Paul Creston, Gordon Jacob, Askell Masson, Minoru Miki, Alfred Reed, Yoshioka Takayoshi, Tsuneya Tanabe, Yannis Xenakis. From 1993 he is Percussion teacher at the “C. Pollini” Conservatory of Padua.
Founded and directed by Massimo Pastore, the Art Percussion Ensemble played at several International Festivals in Italy and abroad. It collaborated with soloists as Emmaneul Sejourné, Bernhard Wulff, Ney Rosauro, Martin Opršál e Makoto Nakura. The Ensemble was invited by Amici della Musica di Padova to perform Stravinsky’s ‘Les Noces’ and Dallapiccola’s ‘Canti di Prigionia’. It performed at Freiburg Hochschule, Danish Royal Academy in Copenhagen, at percussion festivals in Brno and Zagreb and it premiered several works by Italian composersStefano Bellon, Giovanni Bonato, Edoardo Gioachin; from 2012 to 2014 the group took part to the European project Astaper in Krakow along with other international ensembles. Entirely formed by students, the group constantly renovates its organic and its repertoire and develops every year several new musical projects. During SMUG project in 2015 the ensemble was invited in Venice to perform works by Luigi Nono, Gerard Grisey, Edgard Varése, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. In 2011 the group released a double CD, “Light & Dark”, with a selection of the best recordings of the ensemble from 2004 to 2010.