Lucia Ronchetti

Lucia Ronchetti studied composition and computer music at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome and took part in composition seminars with Sylvano Bussotti at the Scuola di Musica of Fiesole (1981–85) and with Salvatore Sciarrino at the Corsi Internazionali of Città di Castello (1988–1989). She studied humanities at the Sapienza University of Rome, where she got her degree in 1987, presenting a dissertation on Bruno Maderna's orchestral compositions. In 1991 she received a Diplôme d'Études Approfondies (D.E.A.) in aesthetics from the University of Paris I-Sorbonne. She subsequently studied musicology with François Lesure at the École Pratique des Hautes Études en Sorbonne and received a doctorate with her thesis on the orchestral style of Ernest Chausson and Wagnerian influence on late 19th-century French orchestral writing. In Paris she participated in composition seminars with Gérard Grisey (1993–1996) and took part in the annual computer music courses at IRCAM (1997) under the supervision of Tristan Murail. In 2005 she was a Visiting Scholar (Fulbright Fellow) at the Music Department of Columbia University (New York), having been invited by Tristan Murail.[1]

Her works have been published by Rai Trade, Durand, Ricordi and Lemoine, and produced, commissioned and performed by such institutions as the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; Konzerthaus, Berlin; Rai Radio Tre, Rome; Deutschland Radio Kultur, Berlin; Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt; MaerzMusik, Berlin; Musik der Jahrhunderte, Stuttgart; Deutschland Radio, Berlin; ensemble recherche, Freiburg; Festival Ultrashall, Berlin; Orchestra of the Rai, Turin; WDR Sinfonieorchester, Cologne; Teatro La Fenice, Venice; Wittener Tagen, Witten; G. R. M., Radio France, Paris; and the Munich Biennale.

• 2008 Music Theatre Now Prize (International Theatre Institute)
• 2006 Composer-in-residence, Yaddo, New York
• 2005-06 Composer in residence, Berliner Künstlerprogramm, D.A.A.D.
• 2005 Visiting Scholar (Fulbright Fellow), Columbia University, New York
• 2003-04 Composer-in-residence, Staatsoper Stuttgart (ForumNeues Musiktheater)
• 2003 Composer-in-residence, The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, (USA)
• 2000-01 Composer-in-residence, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
• 2000 Composition Prize, Federazione Cemat, Rome
• 1997 Fellowship, Fondation des Treilles, Paris
• 1997 Dimitri Mitropoulos International Composition Prize, Athens
• 1997 Erato-Farnesina Fellowship, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• 1995 “Progetto Dionysos” Composition Prize, Italian Ministry of Culture
• 1993 Composer-in-residence, Fondation Nadia Boulanger, Paris
• 1988-92 Doctoral Studies Fellowship, Italian Ministry of Universities

Starting in 1998, she realized various productions at the Berlin Institute of Technology (TUB) in collaboration with Folkmar Hein. In 2003 she started working at the Experimentalstudio of Freiburg, where she wrote a cycle of compositions that explore the sound configuration of the viola, with the assistance of André Richard, Reinhold Braig and Joachim Haas and in collaboration with the violist Barbara Maurer; it was presented in Berlin (Festival Ultrashall 2007) and is called “Xylocopa Violacea” (CD Stradivarius 2010).[2]

In the last few years, Lucia Ronchetti has been working on the compositional treatment of the voice, collaborating intensively with the Neue Vocalsolisten of Stuttgart, one of the foremost European ensembles specializing in contemporary vocal music.[3] Their collaboration has resulted in eight different productions: Studio detto dei venti, for four voices, 2010; Le voyage d’Urien, for voices and ensemble, 2008; Hamlet’s Mill, for voices, viola and cello, 2007; Coins and Crosses, for six voices, 2007; Pinocchio, una storia parallela, for four male voices, 2005; Last Desire, chamber opera for treble voice, countertenor and bass, 2003;[4][5] Hombre de mucha gravedad, for four voices and string quartet, 2002; Anatra al sal, Comedia harmonica for six voices, 2000 (CD Kairos 2010).

She has realized numerous music theatre projects inspired by the social scene,[6] exploring, in the dramaturgy, the concept of otherness (BendelSchlemihl, Strasse-opern, 2000, text by Ivan Vladislavic); outsider groups and dysptopia (Narrenschiffe, in-transit action, 2010, text after Sebastian Brant);[7] limen/border (Der Sonne entgegen, chamber opera, 2009, text by Steffi Hansel);[8] transitory mental illness (Le voyage d’Urien, drammaturgia, text after Gide and 19th century psychiatric reportages, 2008); sub-urbanity (Rumori da monumenti, drammaturgia, text by Ivan Vladislavic, 2007); and Sebenza e-mine, Radio Play, in collaboration with Philip Miller, 2010).

For her music theatre projects she has collaborated with writers Ermanno Cavazzoni, Ivan Vladislavic, Eugene Ostashevsky; artists Toti Scialoja, Alberto Sorbelli, Judith Cahen, Dörte Meyer, Adrian Tranquilli, Elisabetta Benassi, Mirella Weingarten; and sound designers Marie-Hélène Serra, Folkmar Hein, André Richard, Reinhold Braig, Carl Faia, Olivier Pasquet and Thomas Seelig.

• luciaronchetti.com - Official Website
• Rai Trade
• http://www.durand-salabert eschig.com/formcat/actuel/durand_eschig/catalogo_RONCHETTI_DS.pdf
• (French) A biography of Lucia Ronchetti, from IRCAM's website
• www.dersonneentgegen.org
• www.lastdesire.org