news // what’s next?
To be completed in 2025 |
Two Italian folk Songs
for vocal sextet | commissioned by Sjaella | founded by DMR Stipendienprogramm NEUSTART KULTUR Deutscher Musikrat gGmbH |
Sjaella is a female vocal sextet with an amazing artistic activity behind them. I recently received a grant intended to fund the composition of a series of works for them. For Sjaella’s next project I chose to concentrate on songs from the Italian folk repertoire, dealing with topics that are still little known, more specifically: the theme of violent lullabies, feminicide and women’s work in the fields during the war.
My work will consist of selecting two or more traditional songs that deal with these themes and reworking them in my own style, which has always been deeply influenced by folk repertoire and praxis as well as by themes of social interest. Among the titles we are considering for the project are La Cicilia, a song from Veneto about sacrifice and sexual violence; Se tu ti fai monaca, a ballad from Lazio where a woman, in an attempt to escape an insistent lover, is eventually killed; La Tabaccara, from Salento, dedicated to the work of the “tabacchine”(tobacconists), and several others.
To be completed in 2025/2026 |
String octet
commissioned by Medea String Quartet and Castalian String Quartet | founded by DMR Stipendienprogramm NEUSTART KULTUR Deutscher Musikrat gGmbH |
This composition will bring together two very talented quartets: the Medea String Quartet and the Castalian String Quartet, both based in London. The Medea String Quartet is a newly formed ensemble of Royal College of Music ex-alumni, the Castalian String Quartet, Laureate of the Royal Philharmonic Society and permanent ensemble of the University of Oxford, is in great demand on the world stage. The Castalians would mentor the Medeas during this collaboration. The project would culminate in concerts at the UK Reigate Festival and a New York tour. The concept is about the similarities between our brain and the space, the two great unsolved mysteries of our time. Our intention is to seek the collaboration of the astrophotographer Don Nguyen, whose magnificent pictures inspired us for this project.