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Filippo Zapponi

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Biography

Filippo Zapponi was born in 1976, in Milan. He began composing as a child and at the age of seventeen he entered the classes of Ivan Fedele and Giorgio Colombo Taccani at the Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano and at the Sezione di Musica Contemporanea, in Milan. In 1997, he was enrolled in Ivan Fedele's class at the Como Conservatory of Music “Giuseppe Verdi” and graduated with honours in 2000. Since 1997 he was also a student of Ivan Fedele at the Conservatoire National de Région de Strasbourg (France) where he graduated in 2001. In 1999-2001 he was Ivan Fedele's assistant and he worked at Luciano Berio's Centro Tempo Reale, in Florence.

In 2001 he moved to France, in that year he studied with Brian Ferneyhough, Brice Pauset and Stefano Gervasoni at the Session de composition du programme “Voix nouvelles” at the Fondation Royaumont, near Paris. In 2002, he was again Ferneyhough's student at the Centre Acanthes (Avignon, France).

Selected twice by the Ircam Reading Panel, he attended the Stage d'été (2006) and the Cursus I (2008-09) at Ircam (Paris) where he specialized in new technologies for music with Yan Maresz, Philippe Hurel, Philippe Manoury and Marco Stroppa.

From 2004 to 2007, he studied composition and analysis with Karlheinz Stockhausen (Stockhausen Courses Kürten) in Kürten, near Cologne (Germany). At the Stockhausen Foundation for Music, he also organized an annual meeting of composers.

In 2007, he graduated with honours in Musicology from the University of Strasbourg with a dissertation on Stockhausen's opera Freitag aus Licht.

Collaborations

His works, published since 2017 by BabelScores, have been performed in Europe, US, South America, Asia and Australia. Filippo Zapponi collaborates with many ensembles, soloists and festivals: Arditti Quartet, Jeffrey Lyman, Mario Caroli, Ensemble Calliopée, Accroche Note, Ensemble Linea, Sentieri Selvaggi, Festival Pablo Casals, Ircam, Philarmonie de Paris, Expo Milano 2015, Biennale Musica di Venezia, Festival Musica, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Pomona College (Claremont, California), Soochow University School of Music (China), France Culture, Fondation de France, Musée Würth-France, Mamc-Strasbourg, Opéra-Théâtre of Metz, Arsenal Concert Hall, Opéra National du Rhin, Radio Svizzera, among others.
He has undertaken many musical projects with pedagogical purposes, such as the children's opera Opera Mundi (2003) and Le voyage des grues cendrées (2008), the latter was awarded the prize “S'Unir pour Agir” of the Fondation de France. He has also collaborated with the Blicke Dance Company on several international productions.

Teaching career

Filippo Zapponi has been teaching composition, analysis and orchestration at the Metz Conservatory “Gabriel Pierné” since 2008; he was appointed Professor (Professeur d'Enseignement Artistique Titulaire) in 2011 and Distinguished Professor (Professeur Hors Classe) in 2020.

Since 2018 he has been teaching composition at the stage "La Voce" in Bièvre, near Paris (France),  together with Christine Musset (Feldenkrais) and Claudio Pasceri (violoncello).

In 2017, he taught composition at the 22nd Musicalta Academy, Rouffach (France) and, from 2005 to 2014, he taught composition, analysis and orchestration at the University of Strasbourg (CFMI – Centre de Formation de Musiciens Intervenants). He has also given applied analysis seminars at the Cefedem de Lorraine (Metz, France).

Awards

Athique I, for flute and piano, was the winner of the Counterpoint-Italy International Composition Competition 2018 and was premiered in New York (Marillac Theatre, St. John's University).

In 2015, Filippo Zapponi was awarded the first prize at the prestigious 6th International Composition Competition “Festival Pablo Casals” in Prades.

In 2014, he was selected, out of more than 600 composers, at the International Composition Competition « Feeding Music – Compositions From the World for Italian Pavilion Expo Milano 2015 » for a new commission for ensemble and electronics which was featured twice at Expo Milano 2015.

He was awarded the prize “S'Unir pour Agir” of the Fondation de France for the project Le voyage des grues cendrées, in 2008.

Filippo Zapponi won twice the first prize at the XXI and XXII Composition Competition “Castello di Belveglio”, in 1999 and 2000.
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Featured Pieces

Ordered by year. Most recent works appears first

Solo Instrument

Light waves through echoing leaves, I (Full 16-minute version) for piano solo (2023)
Light waves through echoing leaves, II (13-minute version) for piano solo (2023)
Light waves through echoing leaves, III (8-minute version) for piano solo (2023)
Reshaping – The Fury of Memory for piano solo (2022)
Een for violoncello solo (2021)
Recoding Chopin 28.4 Traduction du prélude op. 28 no 4 (2018)
Coding Cloud for solo cello written for Claudio Pasceri (2018)
Studies in Green Textures: III. Springing for piano (2016)
Studies in Green Textures: I. Metatextures for piano (2014)
Studies in Green Textures: II. Echoing for piano (2014)
La Perfection du cercle for piano (2009)

Chamber Ensemble (5 - 9 instruments)

What Is The Best Piece Of Contemporary Music? – Denied! From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2022)
The Best Classical Piano Pieces Of All Times From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2021)
Words Always Have Two Meanings from the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2020)
Natural Optical Water II acoustic version with fixed score of Natural Optical Water (2015)

Ensemble (10 - 19 instruments)

Do Guitar Heroes Play Contemporary Music? From the "ReCoding Cloud" Cycle (2022)

Solo Voice and Accompaniment

Guess My Favourite Baroque Songs - Episode III From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2021)
Guess My Favourite Baroque Songs - Episode I From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2020)
Guess My Favourite Baroque Songs - Episode II From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2020)

Chamber Group ( 2 - 4 instruments )

Aperto for soprano and clarinet in Bb (2021)
Athique II for flute and string trio (2020)
Recoding Chopin 25.11 Traduction et Extended Coda de l’étude op. 25 no 11 (2018)
Recoding for accordion and clarinet in Bb (2016)
Naper for violin, violoncello and piano (2014)
L'Horizon absolu for string quartet (2012)

Instrumental Music

Light waves through echoing leaves, III (8-minute version) for piano solo (2023)
Light waves through echoing leaves, II (13-minute version) for piano solo (2023)
Light waves through echoing leaves, I (Full 16-minute version) for piano solo (2023)
What Is The Best Piece Of Contemporary Music? – Denied! From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2022)
Do Guitar Heroes Play Contemporary Music? From the "ReCoding Cloud" Cycle (2022)
Reshaping – The Fury of Memory for piano solo (2022)
The Best Classical Piano Pieces Of All Times From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2021)
Een for violoncello solo (2021)
Aperto for soprano and clarinet in Bb (2021)
Athique II for flute and string trio (2020)
Words Always Have Two Meanings from the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2020)
Athique I for flute and piano (2019)
Coding Cloud for solo cello written for Claudio Pasceri (2018)
Recoding Chopin 28.4 Traduction du prélude op. 28 no 4 (2018)
Studies in Green Textures: III. Springing for piano (2016)
Recoding for accordion and clarinet in Bb (2016)
Natural Optical Water II acoustic version with fixed score of Natural Optical Water (2015)
Studies in Green Textures: II. Echoing for piano (2014)
Studies in Green Textures: I. Metatextures for piano (2014)
Naper for violin, violoncello and piano (2014)
L'Horizon absolu for string quartet (2012)
La Perfection du cercle for piano (2009)

String Quartet

Recoding Chopin 25.11 Traduction et Extended Coda de l’étude op. 25 no 11 (2018)
L'Horizon absolu for string quartet (2012)

Ensemble (Instruments or Voices) and Real Time Electronics

Natural Optical Water for piano, ensemble, water samples, optical device and live electronics (2015)

Soloist (Instrument or Voice) and Fixed Electronic Media

Hypérion-Eos for bassoon and electronics (2011)
Aperto for soprano and clarinet in Bb (2021)
Athique I for flute and piano (2019)
Athique II for flute and string trio (2020)
Coding Cloud for solo cello written for Claudio Pasceri (2018)
Do Guitar Heroes Play Contemporary Music? From the "ReCoding Cloud" Cycle (2022)
Een for violoncello solo (2021)
Guess My Favourite Baroque Songs - Episode I From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2020)
Guess My Favourite Baroque Songs - Episode II From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2020)
Guess My Favourite Baroque Songs - Episode III From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2021)
Hypérion-Eos for bassoon and electronics (2011)
L'Horizon absolu for string quartet (2012)
La Perfection du cercle for piano (2009)
Light waves through echoing leaves, I (Full 16-minute version) for piano solo (2023)
Light waves through echoing leaves, II (13-minute version) for piano solo (2023)
Light waves through echoing leaves, III (8-minute version) for piano solo (2023)
Naper for violin, violoncello and piano (2014)
Natural Optical Water for piano, ensemble, water samples, optical device and live electronics (2015)
Natural Optical Water II acoustic version with fixed score of Natural Optical Water (2015)
Recoding for accordion and clarinet in Bb (2016)
Recoding Chopin 25.11 Traduction et Extended Coda de l’étude op. 25 no 11 (2018)
Recoding Chopin 28.4 Traduction du prélude op. 28 no 4 (2018)
Reshaping – The Fury of Memory for piano solo (2022)
Studies in Green Textures: I. Metatextures for piano (2014)
Studies in Green Textures: II. Echoing for piano (2014)
Studies in Green Textures: III. Springing for piano (2016)
The Best Classical Piano Pieces Of All Times From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2021)
What Is The Best Piece Of Contemporary Music? – Denied! From the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2022)
Words Always Have Two Meanings from the "ReCoding Cloud" cycle (2020)