composing nature

 What

«Composing Nature» is a one-week composition masterclass focusing on percussion instruments. It is open to students and composers of any nationality and it will take place in Lavarone, a beautiful town on the mountains in northern Italy. Admitted students will have the opportunity of working on a piece for percussions together with two tutors and a percussion ensemble, and at the end of the course the pieces will be performed in concert. The students will also be offered the possibility of taking inspiration from some features of the local territory, sonorous materials such as wood, rocks, water and peculiar acoustic contexts as the forest, the valleys and so on.

 Who

The institutions involved in this projects are: Conservatorio di Musica “C. Pollini” di PadovaComune di Lavarone, APT Alpe Cimbra and Taverna Maderna, an association from Padova focusing on contemporary music. Italian composer Giovanni Bonato and percussionist Massmo Pastore will be the tutors. Art Percussion Ensemble, directed by prof. Pastore, will be the ensemble in residence. 

 When

From 29th August to 5th September 2021. 

 Where

The course will take place in Lavarone, a municipality of the district of Trento, around 1100 meters above sea level. The spaces and structures 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. Admitted students will be provided infos about possibilities of lodging at a discounted price.

 How

Applications are open until 20th July 2021. Should the applications exceed the available places, a selection of participants will be carried on as soon as possibile. Admitted composers will then be invited to pay the contribution for the course (€ 50,00 in total) and to take care of transportation and lodging themselves. Students currently enrolled in any courses of Conservatorio “C. Pollini” are exempt from the contribution. All participants are advised to prepare a sketch or project of their piece in advance (see the guidelines below). During the course the pieces will be rehearsed by the percussion ensemble and, if possible, performed in concert.

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 the ID-Card of the participant;
  • 1 to 3 recent scores in PDF format (should they be of big dimension a service such as Google Drive can be used)
  • A short CV.

Admitted students will be informed about how to transfer the 50€ contribution. Whoever interested (non-admitted appliants included) can attend the lessons as a listener for free by filing and sending to the same e-mail address the following form.

All lessons, rehearsals and other activities will be scheduled on site. During the course all relevant protocols and regulations related to Covid-19 pandemic will be observed; it will probably be required to wear a face mask, at least indoors. At the end of the course all effective students will receive a certificate and the performances will be recorded and filmed.

 Guidelines for participants

All pieces composed by the participants should be around 4-5 minutes long and require max 4 performers. Available instruments:

Marimba (5 octaves) – Vibraphone (3 octaves) – Concert bass drum – Tubular bells (1 octave) – 3 Tam-Tams (low, medium, high) – Cymbals – Drums (1 Snare Drum, 1 Side Drum) – 5 Tom-Toms – 2 Bongos pairs – 1 Congas pair – 3 Dobachis – Alpine cowbells (1 chromatic octave).

Small instruments, instruments provided by the composer and easy-to-procure objects can be added to the instrumentation by informing the organisation. For any information about the instrumentation please contact info@tavernamaderna.it

PARTNER 

THE TUTORS

Giovanni Bonato
Massimo Pastore

THE ENSEMBLE

Art Percussion ensemble

BIOGRAPHIES

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” by  Asiagofestival 2011; 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 Conservatorio “C. Pollini” in Padova.

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. Heworked with Nuovo Gruppo Italiano di Percussioni for 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 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 Conservatorio “C. Pollini” (Padova).

Founded and directed by Massimo Pastore, the Art Percussion Ensemble plays at several International Festivals in Italy and abroad. It collaborates 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 composers Stefano 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.

For any informations, please contact us at info@tavernamaderna.it!