PEDINI Carlo

(Perugia, 1956)

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Bio

Carlo Pedini was born in Perugia in 1956 and studied music independently for a number of years before taking his diploma at the Conservatory of Perugia with Fernando Sulpizi, subsequently specializing with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and Salvatore Sciarrino in Città di Castello. He now teaches at the Conservatory of Perugia after having taught in Avellino, Adria and Pesaro. Pedini studied Choral Music and Choral Conducting at the Conservatorio “Rossini” in Pesaro (1981) and Composition at the Conservatorio “Morlacchi” in Perugia (1983). He also studied at the Università di Perugia, graduating with a degree in Law in 1982.

Since 1980, his compositions have garnered many honors at the “Balilla Pratella” National Competition, Belveglio National Competition, “G.B. Viotti” International Competition, the Bucchi Award in Rome, the Premio Ancona, the Venice Opera Prima, the Gaudeamus Compeition in Amsterdam (1984) and the Accademia Lirica Osimo International Opera Competition to mark the European Music Year. In 1995, his poem for orchestra Il Cantico dei Cantici was prized the Bologna Competition “2 August”.

The composer of four lyric operas as well as many symphonic and chanber works, Pedini has received numerous invitations and commissions from RAI, orchestras, and concert programs. In 1993, the RAI broadcast commissioned his dramatic oratorio Il Mistero Jacopone, the story of Jacopone da Todi, the great Italian poet preceding Dante Alighieri, for four voices, baritone, medieval instruments, choir, and orchestra directed by Karl Martin and featuring the voice of Jacopone Mario Scaccia. In 2004, the Arena di Verona Foundation commissioned the ballet L’anima del Perugino, which was premiered that same year at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona. In 2005, Pedini’s Requiem for choir and orchestra was premiered at the Kusatsu Festival in Japan and later performed in Italy and Germany by the Motetten Chamber Choir of Munich.

Pedini serves as a member of the Commissione Artistica of ARCUM (Assiciazione Regionale dei Cori dell’Umbria) and from 1989 to 1994 acted as Artistic Director of Divertimenti Musicali in Perugia. From 1996 to 2003, he was Artistic Director of the Sagra Musicale Umbra, one of the oldest and most famous festivals in Europe since 1937. Pedini has also commissioned works and organized the world premieres of great composers of our time: Songs of Milarepa (1997) by Philip Glass, Grido (1998) by Ennio Morricone, Concerto-cantata de Perugia (1999) by Leo Brouwer, and the Missa Solemnis Resurrectionis (2000) by eight Italian composers for the 2000 Jubilee, performed in Rome’s Campidoglio Square. The mass was broadcasted through RaiDue as an Easter concert in 2002. From 2004 to 2005 he was the Composer-in-Residence for the Sagra Musicale Umbra. He is an honorary member of the Libera Università di Città della Pieve and of the Director’s Board of the Amici della Lirica in Perugia.

Pedini’s works are performed and broadcasted in several countries (Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Russia, the United States and Japan) and are published by Casa Musicale Sonzogno. Aside from composition, he occupies himself in the figurative arts as a painter.

Gallery

Carlo Pedini (to the left, in a self-portrait) welcomes Philip Glass to the Sagra Musicale Umbra, of which he is the Artistic Director
Sketch by Raffaele Montesano for Una giornata qualunque at the Teatro La Nuova Fenice of Osimo (2000)

Operas