Composers

He was graduated in composition with C. Mosso, piano, choral music and chorus conducting. He studied composition with A.

Corghi in '97 in Parma and then, in '98, at  the Academy of "S. Cecilia" in Rome where he won the SIAE scholarship for the best degree. Colla, between '96 and '01, won the following competitions:

• 1^st prize to the "G. Verdi" -Parma- Italy ('01) with the Lyric Opera Il processo by F. Kafka.
• 1^st prize to the "A. Ghazaleh" -Paris- France ('00) with Le rovine di Palmira for large orch.
• 1^st prize to the "D. Mitropoulos" -Athens- Greece ('99) with Aria del quetzal for large orch.
• 1^st prize to the "BMW - Musica Viva" -München- Germany ('98) with Passacaglia del leviatano for large symphony orchestra.
• 1^st prize to the "E. Grieg Memorial" -Oslo- Norway ('98) with 1st piano concerto.
• 1^st prize with Special Mention by the President of Italian Republic to "2 Agosto" Bologna Italy ('96) with Pax for soprano and orchestra.
• 1^st prize to the "Città di Alessandria" Italy ('97) with Sonata per chitarra.
• 1^st prize to the "Gesualdo da Venosa" -Potenza- Italy ('97), with Evangelium.
• 1^st prize to the "F. Margola" -Brescia- Italy ('96), with Trio.

He received commissions and was selected by major festivals, broadcast on radio and television in all the U. Europe, Scandinavia, Israel and the U.S.A. and recorded on CD in Austria, Canada and Japan. His music has been performed by prestigious orchestras such as: Los Angeles Philarmonic, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence), Mozarteum Symphony (Salzburg), Santa Cecilia (Rome), Bayerischen Rundfunks (München), Orch. of Colours (Athens), O.S.E.R. (Parma), Juilliard Symphony (New York), Lirico (Cagliari), Kringkastings (Oslo), Pomeriggi Musicali (Milan) etc...
His Opera Il processo was performed with great success during the 2002 season of the "Teatro alla Scala" in Milan and the lyric season of "I Teatri" in Reggio Emilia. L. Berio commissioned him a work for chorus and large orch. for the inauguration, in dec '02, of the Auditorium by R. Piano in Rome. In April '03, Le rovine di Palmira will be played in Chicago by the Chicago Symphony conducted by R. Abbado.

He has produced, in few years ('96-'02) an impressively large body of orchestral works: Starlights (Luci stellari), Ave verum, Scheggiature da Brahms, Somnium, La colomba di pietra, Libera me, Symphonia in memoriam, Il processo (Opera in 3 stadiums for 10 singers, double mixed chorus, symph. orch.), Requiem degli uccisi, Le rovine di Palmira, Aria del quetzal, Liturgia, Caccia del catoblepa, Passacaglia del leviatano, 1st and 2nd Piano Concerto, Rivelazione, Pax. And several chamber, solo, vocal works.

He concentrated his musical research on symbolism in intervals, themes and gestures. He worked out orchestration like a summa of different techniques, bordering on quotation, transcription, parody and evocation of time past musical ideas as well (working on material by Galuppi, Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, Rimskij-Korsakov, Grieg, Weill, Stravinskij etc.). He studied how to elaborate monodic sacred European music, extra-European (Egypt, Middle East, Mesopotamia, Indonesia) and ethnologic musical technique (central Africa, Amazonia). He teaches composition in the International Advanced Academy "L. Perosi" in Biella - Italy.