Composers

Composer and conductor

He began his piano musical studies in classical repertoire. Very early he devoted his attention to jazz, studying piano, composition and arrangement with some of the best Italian jazz player (as Enrico Pieranunzi, Franco D'Andrea, Giancarlo Gazzani) and with the pianist and composer Mal Waldron. With his jazz band, Festa Group, Fabrizio Festa toured in Italy and in Europe, and the band has been invited twice to the International Jazz Festival of Montreux. In 2000 the band made is debut in USA with a great success. Festa Group recorded two LP and two CD: mostly of the compositions are by Fabrizio Festa himself.

He studied at the Conservatorio "G.B. Martini" in Bologna as a composer and in the class of jazz orchestra arrangement.
Since 1989 Fabrizio Festa devotes his musical work mostly to composition (chamber and symphonic music, ballet, opera, radiodrama), although he composed and composes for cinema, TV movies and for theatre shows, and in 1996 he played again piano in a his new jazz band. In 1998 he made his debut as conductor.
His works has been performed in Italy, USA (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, etc.), Germany, Russia, Holland, French, Swedish, Lebanon, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Latin America. Some of the most important Italian theatre (i.e., Teatro dell'Opera - Roma, Teatro Massimo - Palermo, Teatro Comunale - Bologna, Teatro Valli - Reggio Emilia) commissioned him symphonic music, ballet music and opera. Main most recent and relevant works are the following:
1995, Teatro dell'Opera - Rome, "Ad immagine e somiglianza", for soprano, choir and orchestra.
1996, Teatro Comunale - Modena, Teatro Comunale - Ferrara, Teatro Comunale - Bologna, "Il volo", opera. Teatro Politeama - Symphonic Season Teatro Massimo, Palermo, "Suite in Do", for flute and strings orchestra (soloist Andrea Griminelli). The Italian Radio (RAI) produced Fabrizio Festa's first radiodrama ("Favole in musica", five episodes), followed in 1997 by a new radiodrama RAI productions ("Poesia e Musica", five episodes).

1997 by commission of Rostov on Don Festival (Russia) "La Via Lattea" ("Milky Way"), concerto for piano and orchestra. Teatro Comunale - Bologna, "Hero and Leander", opera based on a poem by Christopher Marlowe. Viterbo Festival, "Suite in Do" for violin and string orchestra. Ente musicale - Nuoro, "Nulla", melologo for two narrators and ensemble. New Radio production, titled "Poesia e musica".

1998, Teatro Comunale - Ferrara, "Suite in Fa", for Bb clarinet and string orchestra. It has been published a new CD: "Radiofavole", which collects the first RAI radiodrama productions. Orchestra Sinfonica di Lecce: production and tour of "Laudes", a cantata for narrator, soprano and orchestra;

1999, "Un angelo alla luce del giorno" ("An angel in the light of the day"), concert for flute and orchestra (performed by Andrea Griminelli as soloist) and commissioned by Orchestra Sinfonica di Lecce;

2000, "Enjoy", strings quartet commissioned by Brodsky Quartet in order to Beethoven Opus 18 International Project. "Sandaliotim", for narrator, jazz quartet and orchestra (text by Fabrizio Festa), commissioned by Ente Musicale di Nuoro for celebrating millennium in Sardinia. "Tanit" for two narrators, electric guitar and keyboards produced by Sagra Malatestiana (Rimini, Italy). Furthermore in 2000 Fabrizio Festa has realized his new CD, 'The Vast Conspiracy of Birds'. Jazz guitar player and composer Al Di Meola to orchestrate and conduct (leading Toronto Symphony Orchestra) for his next recording have invited him. Telarc released the CD in October 2000.

In 2001, Festa's works have debut also in China (Beijing) and Iran. Moreover, new pieces will be performed in Turkey, Greece and Russia. Fabrizio Festa has been invited to take part to 2001 edition of the Focus Festival at Juilliard School of Music (NYC), in which has been the USA debut of his first string quartet, titled "Sleepless traveller". He has been also invited by the Brooklyn College of Music to take part at the Brooklyn Conservatory Composers Forum. In 2001 he has been commissioned to compose a symphonic homage to Verdi (by Orchestra Sinfonica di Lecce).

In 2002, "Enjoy" for saxophone quartet will debut at St. Petersburg Festival, and a new trio "Miles to run" (for flute, violin and piano) will be performed at Carnegie Hall (NYC). The Orchestra Sinfonica di Lecce has commissioned him a work for wind quintet and large orchestra (Kite Songs) and the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese invited him to compose a new score for narrator and orchestra (Il lungo pranzo di Natale, freely inspired to T: Wilder drama).

In 2003 will debut new pieces: Bach is cruising through interstellar space for piano (March, USA - Kansa City, Sanantonio and Washington), Libera Toccata quinta for Marimba (July, Switzerland, Lugano), Preludio per il mare d'inverno for organ (August, Germany, Berlin), Pegasus for flute and strings (October, Mexico, Cervantino Festival), Americana Suite (September, Teatro Comunale di Bologna). Some chamber pieces will be performed all over the world, from Beijing to New Delhi to Latin America. In summer it will debut Fabrizio Festa's new quartet, with a special program titled Utopia. This program has been realized with the collaboration of many composers form different countries (as John Psathas form New Zealand, Tomi Raisanen from Finland, Shaun Bracey form Great Britain).
Since 1996 mostly of his chamber works has been performed in Europe (Germany, GB, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, etc.), in USA, in Latin America, in Russia, in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Middle and Far East.
Fabrizio Festa is the artistic director of the International Composer Competition "2 Agosto" in Bologna and of Teatro della Fortuna at Fano. He is artistic consultant at Musica Insieme Concert Society (Bologna). Fabrizio Festa is the artistic director of portal Auralit.com.

Fabrizio Festa teaches arrangement and orchestration at Bologna Conservatory. He is assistant at the History of Modern and Contemporary Theater Chair at Music, Theater, Fine Arts Department of the University of Bologna.
Fabrizio Festa collaborate as music critic with "La Repubblica" and "Opera". He his the editor of Musica Insieme magazine and a member of the National Association of Music Critics.