Competition 2010

for the piece Toy Symphony

He was born in 1976 in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory and completed post-graduate course led by Leonid Bobylev.

His compositions won several prizes at the international composers competitions, including the Gaudeamus Prize 2003 in the Netherlands.

In 2008 he was artist-in-residence of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm and in 2010 – composer-in-residence of the 2E2M ensemble in Paris.

Dmitri Kourliandski is the founder and editor-in-chief of Tribuna Sovremennoi Muzyki (Tribune of Contemporary Music, 2005-2009), the first Russian journal dealing with contemporary music issues. He is a co-founder of the Structural Resistance (StRes) group of composers and member of the Composers' Union of Russia. Founder and artistic director of the International Young Composers Academy in Tchaikovsky city. Musical assistant artistic director of the Stanislawsky drama art theatre.

for the piece With your back to the trees – with your face to me 

Vladimir Rannev (*1970, Moscow) is a composer and a lecturer at the St. Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory and the St. Petersburg State University. In 2003 he graduated from the composition department of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied with Professor Boris Tishchenko. In 2003-2005 he studied electronic music at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne with Professor Hans Ulrich Humpert. Since 2003 he has been working as a music journalist and has published over four hundred pieces of music criticism in the various Russian 9

periodicals. Rannev is a recipient of a Gartow Stiftung scholarship (Germany, 2002), Teatro minima competition of the Opernhaus Zurich (Switzerland, 2004), the Salvatore Martirano Award of the University Illinois (USA, 2009), Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award (Switzerland, 2010). In 2007 Rannev was a composer in residence at the University of Durham (UK). His latest opera “Blaubart – Hoffnung der Frauen” to a libretto by the German playwright Dea Loher (a co-production of the Goethe-Institute and Pro Arte Institute) was premiered in St.Petersburg in April 2010 and in Perm in June 2011 and was in the shortlist of Sergey Kouryohin Prize (Russia, 2011).

Rannevs' music has been performed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the UK, Finland, Japan and the USA by various ensembles, including the orchestra of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra, eNsemble of the Pro Arte Institute (Russia), One Orchestra, Studio of New Music, Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (Russia), Nostri Temporis (Ukraine), Orkest de Volharding (The Netherlands), Les Eclats du Son, Integrales, LUX:NM, Singakademie Oberhausen (Germany). Rannev is a member of the StRes (Structure Resistance) group of composers (Russia).

for the piece Mannaggia a Bubbà!

Daniela Terranova is an Italian pianist and composer. She studied composition in Italy with

Azio Corghi and Ivan Fedele and followed academies and masterclasses throughout Europe, as Master of Arts in Music Composition and Theory in Lugano, Universitat fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Graz with Beat Furrer, Son[ut]opìas festival and mastercalss with Toshio Hosokawa. In recent years, she has won several national and international competitions, including: I prize at the international competition Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award (Swiss), Special Mention for the Italian Music SIAE Award (Rome, Competition Valentino Bucchi - Parco della Musica Contest), the prize Monte dei Paschi di Siena, offered from the bank Monte dei Paschi to the best student of the composition's courses at the Accademia Chigiana (Siena), I prize at the international competition Music and Art (Rome), and others.

She recently won the international selection for the third edition of the "Franco Donatoni" International Meeting for Young Composers, in Milan, and was commissioned a new composition for ensemble and dance by the Divertimento Ensemble with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. She studies Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Trieste.

Gianni Bergamo was born in Milan, Italy in 1941, attended primary school in Italy and Liceo in Switzerland. After a degree in Economy (1964) at the Catholic University of Milan, he dedicated himself to the study of music with Tissoni (harmony and composition), D. Maffeis (organ) and N. Sanzogno (orchestra conducting) at the Conservatory of Bergamo, Italy.
From 1964 to 1994 has been a businessman with his own import-export, real estate and finance companies, though at the same time he has remained close to music and to its world.
In 1990 he created the Cultural Association “Gli Amici Cantori”, first as a chorus alone, then later accompanied by an orchestra. He has given many concerts in Italy with them, preferring the symphonic-sacred repertoire (masses, oratories, passions, etc.). At present, he lives in Santiago del Chile.

In 1998 after a promising career as pianist, chamber musician and teacher for Music history Graziella Contratto is invited by Claudio Abbado to become his musical assistant in the Berlin Philharmony and the Easter Festival in Salzburg.

In 2000 the Orchestre National de Lyon under David Robertson elects Graziella Contratto à l’unanimité as their resident conductor.

In 2003 the Swiss conductor Graziella Contratto becomes the new Artistic Director of the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie in France and thus the first female chief conductor in France.

She has conducted the Manhattan Sinfonietta NY, the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the Bamberger Sinfoniker, the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, the Berner Symphonieorchester, the Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestra sinfonica di Bari etc. She is regularly invited to different European Festivals.

Bruno Ganz, Anna Larsson, Michel Portal, Raphaël Oleg, Donald Littaker, Patrizia Ciofi, Roberto Saccà, Ning Liang, Lisa Larsson and Anne Gastinel, Frank Braley and Nicolas Angelich are some of her artistic partners.

In several artistic collaborations with Mirella Weingarten, Berlin, she has produced e.g. Astor Piazzolla’s “Maria de Buenos Aires” in Switzerland. In Bettina Ehrhardt’s prizewinning documentaries about Luigi Nono (“Kielspur im Meer”), Bobby MacFerrin/Chick Corea (“We Play”) and Helmut Lachenmann ("wo ich noch nie war") Graziella Contratto has been a musical consulter.

She is the new artistic director of the Davos Festival 2007- young artists in concert in Switzerland. Her conducting of Verdi's "La Traviata" in Avenches' opera festival in July 2008 has received excellent international critics. Graziella Contratto is the Artistic director of the Camerata Schweiz, a young professional orchestra with special concerts and projects (Orchestergraben).

In October 2009 she will found the Artur Schnabel Festival in Schwyz (central Switzerland) where this outstanding artist and pianist has died in 1951.

www.graziellacontratto.com

Born in Milan, received his diploma from the “G. Verdi” Conservatory of Milan in piano (with highest marks) under the guidance of L. Leonardi and continued his studies with other Professors in Italy and abroad.

He also studied composition with S. Gorli and U. Rotondi, successfully obtaining his diploma in Milan.

Parolini continued his studies with the conductor Guido Guida, becoming his assistant at the ATA in Alessandria and at the Venice Biennale, also working as substitute conductor in several Italian theatres.

He is particularly active as a chamber musician in different formations, playing regularly in Italy and abroad, dedicating himself to the diffusion of contemporary music. He has performed several world premières and has had new compositions dedicated to him.

Since 1997 he has been permanent conductor of the “Ensemble Traiettorie Sonore” of Como, which specializes in the performance of works of our century and in the interaction with other artistic disciplines. Furthermore, he is the conductor of the Baveno Festival Ensemble and has been invited to conduct the Nòmos Ensemble of the CSM in Cinisello Balsamo, the group “Musica XX” and the choir of the “Nuova Polifonica Ambrosiana”.

He has collaborated with the “Ensemble Nuove Sincronie” (with recordings for Radio France, BBC, RAI and discs for the Ricordi and Stradivarius labels), with the “Divertimento Ensemble”, the “Tactus Ensemble”, the “Ensemble Epistrophé”, the “G. Cantelli Orchestra”, the “G. Verdi Orchestra”, the “Orchestra Milano Classica”, the “Coro Filarmonico” in Brescia, the “Coro Orlando di Lasso” and the “Nuova Polifonica Ambrosiana”. He has recorded for Eucled, Agorà and Curci in duo with the famous harmonica player Willi Burger, obtaining excellent reviews from specialists.

He has received awards in diverse competitions, among them first prizes in Stresa, Modica, Turin, Livorno and Monza, and a second prize at the Composition Competition “Benassi” in Pavia.

He has played for La Società dei Concerti, Teatro alla Scala, Matinée dell’Orchestra Sinfonica G. Verdi in Milan, Novurgia, G.M.I., ptba and Cité Universitaire in Paris,  Musica de Strasbourg, Foundation Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Musiques en Scène de Lyon et Marseille, Gaudeamus Amsterdam, Huddersfield Festival, National University of Singapore, 6th Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival in Taipei, Concert Hall in Hong-Kong, Spah in St. Louis, Parnu Suupillifestival, Accademia S. Cecilia in Rome, Società del Quartetto in Busto A., Accademia Pianistica in Udine, A.gi.Mus. and in various Italian cities, Amici della Musica. He has conducted in concert seasons such as Atelier Musicale del XX secolo, Festival U. Giordano, Traiettorie Sonore, Officina Musicale, Provincia Sonora, Merate Musica and Percorsi di Cinisello Balsamo.

In addition to his concerts, he has an extensive teaching activity.

He is a permanent member of the jury of the prestigious “Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award”.

Rebecca Saunders was born in London in 1967. She studied music, majoring in performance (violin) and composition, at Edinburgh University, and studying composition from1991-1994 with Wolfgang Rihm at the Karlsruhe Music College in Germany. From 1994-1997 she held the Premier Scholarship at the Edinburgh University for a PhD in Composition with Nigel Osborne.

She has received various composition prizes including the Ernst von Siemens Förderpreis, the ARD und BMW AG musicaviva Prize, the Paul Hindemith Prize, and for chamber music the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Award in 2008.
In 2009 she became a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts, and is at present Capel-Compositeur at the Staatskapelle Dresden for the 2009/2010 season.
Rebecca Saunders lives in Berlin.

Born in Balerna, Switzerland in 1970. Nadir Vassena studied composition in Milano with Bruno Zanolini and with Johannes Schöllhorn in Freiburg i.B. In 1993 he participated in composition courses in Royaumont, held by Brian Ferneyhough. He has been invited to numerous international festivals and awarded prizes on various occasions; in 1992 to the Competition of the WDR of Köln, Germany, in 1994 to the Institut für Neue Musik der Hochschule der Künste of Berlin (first prize ex aequo), in 1997 to the Mozart-Wettbewerb of Salzburg, Austria.

In 1999 he was awarded the first prize of the Christoph Delz Foundation of Basel, Switzerland. In 2000 he received a grant from the Schloss-Solitude Foundation of Stuttgart and in 2002, the artists' residence Denkmalschmiede Höfgen/Margarethenstiftung. For the academic year 2002-2003 he is a member of the Istituto Svizzero of Rome.