Francesco Cilluffo
Encyclopedia
Francesco Cilluffo is an Italian composer
and conductor
.
He graduated in Composition and Conducting with Gilberto Bosco from the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Turin after having completed a Music Degree from the University of Turin
with a thesis about Benjamin Britten
’s Billy Budd
. In 2003 he moved to London, where he completed a PhD in Composition at the King’s College London, after having been awarded a Master in Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
in London. He also held the position of a Composition and Conducting fellow for the Academic Year 2004-2005. Particularly important for his development as a composer were the sessions with Alexander Goehr
in Cambridge and meeting Tobias Picker
, whose opera Emmeline
was influential in his determination to become an operatic composer.
His works have been performed in Italy, England, Austria, Russia, United States and Hong Kong.
’s famous book, commissioned by the RAI National Symphony Orchestra
featuring actress Sonia Bergamasco, the piano trios This island’s mine and Turning to Turner (commissioned by the Trio Debussy) and the string symphony Castelli di Rabbia (after Alessandro Baricco
’s novel), performed as part of the 2006 Winter Olympics
celebrations. His most performed chamber works include A Sonata Play for cello and piano and Il sistema periodico for piano solo (based on the book by Primo Levi
).
, Voci di tenebra azzurra (for chorus, mezzosoprano and orchestra), was premiered at the 2011 Festival della Valle d'Itria
to much critical acclaim. His next song cycle for soprano and string orchestra, The Land to Life again, will be premiered at the Festival Incontri in Terra di Siena in 2012. His choral piece Carmen Artemisiae, based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, will also be premiered in 2012. Among his recent vocal cycles are also Death in Florence (commissioned by the London Song Festival) and Emily Dickinson: a Song Cycle, which was awarded the Tracey Chawell Memorial Prize in London. He was also awarded the East-West Competition for The Other Boat, commissioned by the Elektra Ensemble in Amsterdam.
, Sadler's Wells Theatre
and City of London Festival
, Scottish Opera
, Municipal Theatre of Santiago (Chile), Byblos International Festival
, Teatro Carignano and Teatro Nuovo in Turin. He has worked as assistant conductor in the United States (Lyric Opera of Chicago
and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
) and Europe (Gewandhaus
, Leipzig, Danish National Symphony Orchestra
, Opéra national du Rhin
, Strasbourg, and Teatro La Fenice
, Venice). He has also attended master classes with conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas
(with the London Symphony Orchestra
), Iván Fischer
(Budapest Festival Orchestra
) and Gianluigi Gelmetti
(Accademia Musicale Chigiana
).
Among his recent conducting engagements are Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde
at the Festival della Valle d'Itria
, a tour of concerts with the Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago in Chile (featuring music by Rossini, Haydn and Mendelssohn), Marco Tutino
’s opera The Servant at the Teatro Rossini in Lugo and Mozart’s Requiem
(edited by Robert D. Levin
) with the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino in Turin. He also conducted Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Byblos International Festival
, a Verdi Gala with the Scottish Opera in Glasgow, a concert for the Italian Cultural Institute of Beirut with the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra
, Luigi Cherubini
’s Requiem in C minor with the orchestra and chorus of the Accademia Stefano Tempia in Turin and an all-Handel concert with the same company.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
.
He graduated in Composition and Conducting with Gilberto Bosco from the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Turin after having completed a Music Degree from the University of Turin
University of Turin
The University of Turin is a university in the city of Turin in the Piedmont region of north-western Italy...
with a thesis about Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
’s Billy Budd
Billy Budd (opera)
Billy Budd is an opera by Benjamin Britten, from a libretto by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, was first performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 1 December 1951. It is based on the short novel Billy Budd by Herman Melville....
. In 2003 he moved to London, where he completed a PhD in Composition at the King’s College London, after having been awarded a Master in Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
in London. He also held the position of a Composition and Conducting fellow for the Academic Year 2004-2005. Particularly important for his development as a composer were the sessions with Alexander Goehr
Alexander Goehr
Alexander Goehr is an English composer and academic.Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and Schoenberg pupil Walter Goehr. In his early twenties he emerged as a central figure in the Manchester School of post-war British composers. In 1955–56 he joined Oliver Messiaen's...
in Cambridge and meeting Tobias Picker
Tobias Picker
Tobias Picker is an American composer. Picker began composing at the age of eight and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School and Princeton University, where his principal teachers were Charles Wuorinen, Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt...
, whose opera Emmeline
Emmeline (opera)
Emmeline is an opera in two acts composed by Tobias Picker with a libretto by JD McClatchy. Picker's first opera, it was commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera company and premiered in 1996...
was influential in his determination to become an operatic composer.
His works have been performed in Italy, England, Austria, Russia, United States and Hong Kong.
Instrumental music
Cilluffo’s most recent instrumental music includes Drash for orchestra (commissioned and premiered by the Chicago Arts Orchestra), Il barone rampante after Italo CalvinoItalo Calvino
Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...
’s famous book, commissioned by the RAI National Symphony Orchestra
RAI National Symphony Orchestra
RAI National Symphony Orchestra is a major Italian symphony orchestra, based in Turin and owned by State radio and television company RAI.-History:...
featuring actress Sonia Bergamasco, the piano trios This island’s mine and Turning to Turner (commissioned by the Trio Debussy) and the string symphony Castelli di Rabbia (after Alessandro Baricco
Alessandro Baricco
Alessandro Baricco is a popular Italian writer, director and performer. His novels have been translated into a wide number of languages...
’s novel), performed as part of the 2006 Winter Olympics
2006 Winter Olympics
The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter...
celebrations. His most performed chamber works include A Sonata Play for cello and piano and Il sistema periodico for piano solo (based on the book by Primo Levi
Primo Levi
Primo Michele Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer. He was the author of two novels and several collections of short stories, essays, and poems, but is best known for If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland...
).
Vocal music
Cilluffo enjoys particular success working with voices. His cantata for the 150th anniversary of the Italian unificationItalian unification
Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...
, Voci di tenebra azzurra (for chorus, mezzosoprano and orchestra), was premiered at the 2011 Festival della Valle d'Itria
Festival della Valle d'Itria
The Festival della Valle d’Itria is a summer opera festival held in the south eastern Italian town of Martina Franca in the Apulia region. The Festival was founded in 1975 and performances are given in July and August each summer on a specially constructed stage in the outdoor courtyard of the...
to much critical acclaim. His next song cycle for soprano and string orchestra, The Land to Life again, will be premiered at the Festival Incontri in Terra di Siena in 2012. His choral piece Carmen Artemisiae, based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, will also be premiered in 2012. Among his recent vocal cycles are also Death in Florence (commissioned by the London Song Festival) and Emily Dickinson: a Song Cycle, which was awarded the Tracey Chawell Memorial Prize in London. He was also awarded the East-West Competition for The Other Boat, commissioned by the Elektra Ensemble in Amsterdam.
Operas
- Edward II: a two-act opera based on Christopher MarloweChristopher MarloweChristopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
’s tragedy, written during his PhD at King’s College, it was awarded a Special Prize at the Fux International Opera Competition at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in GrazGrazThe more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
. - Il caso Mortara: a two-act opera based on the true story of Edgardo MortaraEdgardo MortaraEdgardo Levi Mortara was a Roman Catholic priest who was born and raised Jewish. Fr. Mortara became the center of an international controversy when he was removed from his Jewish parents by authorities of the Papal States and raised as a Catholic...
. It is the first Italian opera commissioned to an Italian composer by a New York opera company since the times of Giacomo PucciniGiacomo PucciniGiacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
at the Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
. The opera was commissioned and produced by the Dicapo OperaDicapo OperaDicapo Opera Theatre was co-founded in 1981 by General Director Michael Capasso and Artistic Director Diane Martindale. Aside from the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera, it is the only professional non-profit opera company in New York City presenting an annual season of opera productions,...
Theatre in New York in 2010. The New York Times critic Anthony TommasiniAnthony Tommasini-Early years:Tommasini was born in Brooklyn around 1948 and raised on Long Island. He was admitted to Oberlin College's Conservatory of Music, but chose to matriculate at Yale University in order to obtain a broader liberal arts education...
hailed it as one of the most important events of New York's 2010 operatic season.
Conducting activities
Cilluffo has distinguished himself as a conductor in United Kingdom and Europe in venues such as the Barbican CentreBarbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...
, Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
and City of London Festival
City of London Festival
The City of London Festival is an annual arts festival that takes place in the City of London, England, over two to three weeks in June and July. The Festival is strongly geared towards classical music, but also offers a programme that includes jazz, world music, opera, film screenings, lectures...
, Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies funded by the Scottish Government...
, Municipal Theatre of Santiago (Chile), Byblos International Festival
Byblos International Festival
The Byblos international festival is one of the biggest Lebanese festivals which attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world to the shores of Lebanon,to Byblos first city in Phoenicia founded around 5000BC.-HISTORY:...
, Teatro Carignano and Teatro Nuovo in Turin. He has worked as assistant conductor in the United States (Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra is a symphony orchestra which is managed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and plays the vast majority of its performances at the Hollywood Bowl....
) and Europe (Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, Germany. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. The first Gewandhaus was built in 1781 by architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe. The second opened on 11 December 1884, and was destroyed in the...
, Leipzig, Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
The Danish National Symphony Orchestra , is a Danish orchestra based in Copenhagen. The DNSO is the principal orchestra of DR...
, Opéra national du Rhin
Opéra national du Rhin
LOpéra national du Rhin is an opera company which performs in Alsace, eastern France, and which includes the Opéra in Strasbourg, the company's ballet in Mulhouse , and the "Opéra Studio" , a training centre for young singers, in Colmar...
, Strasbourg, and Teatro La Fenice
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
, Venice). He has also attended master classes with conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.-Early years:...
(with the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
), Iván Fischer
Iván Fischer
Iván Fischer is a Hungarian conductor and composer. Born in Budapest into a Jewish musical family, Fischer initially studied piano, violin, cello and composition in Budapest...
(Budapest Festival Orchestra
Budapest Festival Orchestra
The Budapest Festival Orchestra was formed in 1983 by Iván Fischer and Zoltán Kocsis, with musicians "drawn from the cream of Hungary's younger players", as The Times put it...
) and Gianluigi Gelmetti
Gianluigi Gelmetti
Gianluigi Gelmetti is an Italian conductor and composer.He studied conducting with Franco Ferrara, Sergiu Celibidache and Hans Swarowsky. He first conducted an orchestra in Siena at age 16....
(Accademia Musicale Chigiana
Accademia Musicale Chigiana
The Accademia Musicale Chigiana is a music institute in Siena, Italy. It was founded by Count Guido Chigi Saracini in 1932 as an international centre for advanced musical studies. It organises Master Classes in the major musical instruments as well as singing, conducting and composition...
).
Among his recent conducting engagements are Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde
Das Lied von der Erde
Das Lied von der Erde is a large-scale work for two vocal soloists and orchestra by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler...
at the Festival della Valle d'Itria
Festival della Valle d'Itria
The Festival della Valle d’Itria is a summer opera festival held in the south eastern Italian town of Martina Franca in the Apulia region. The Festival was founded in 1975 and performances are given in July and August each summer on a specially constructed stage in the outdoor courtyard of the...
, a tour of concerts with the Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago in Chile (featuring music by Rossini, Haydn and Mendelssohn), Marco Tutino
Marco Tutino
Marco Tutino is an Italian composer. His emergence during the late 1970s was as the spearhead of an Italian Neo-Romantico group, founded with two other composers, Lorenzo Ferrero and Carlo Galante....
’s opera The Servant at the Teatro Rossini in Lugo and Mozart’s Requiem
Requiem (Mozart)
The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...
(edited by Robert D. Levin
Robert D. Levin
Robert D. Levin is a classical performer, musicologist, and composer, and is the Artistic Director of the Sarasota Music Festival.-Education:...
) with the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino in Turin. He also conducted Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Byblos International Festival
Byblos International Festival
The Byblos international festival is one of the biggest Lebanese festivals which attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world to the shores of Lebanon,to Byblos first city in Phoenicia founded around 5000BC.-HISTORY:...
, a Verdi Gala with the Scottish Opera in Glasgow, a concert for the Italian Cultural Institute of Beirut with the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra
Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra
L’Orchestre symphonique national du Liban or The Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra was founded in late 1999 in Beirut under the guidance of Dr. Walid Gholmieh and the management of Le Conservatoire libanais national supérieur de musique or The Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music...
, Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....
’s Requiem in C minor with the orchestra and chorus of the Accademia Stefano Tempia in Turin and an all-Handel concert with the same company.