impuls . 10th International Ensemble and Composers Academy for Contemporary Music
Graz, February 10th - 22nd, 2017
check tutors on left side and scroll down for information
- Photo by Kai Bienart
Special Program with Agostino Di Scipio, David Pirrò and Hanns Holger Rutz
Agostino Di Scipio, composition + electronics
"...sound is never in itself, but in an event of relation and its wider ecology of actions..." (Di Scipio, "Sound Object? Sound Event! Sketches for a Biopolitics of Music").
Agostino Di Scipio (Naples, Italy, 1962), composer, sound artist and scholar, graduated in Composition and Electronic Music from the Conservatory of L’Aquila, studied Computer Music at CSC, University of Padova. Di Scipio explores original methods in the generation and transmission of sound, often featuring phenomena of emergence and chaotic dynamics, in either live electronics performance contexts, chamber music contexts or sound installation works. Many of his recent works implement “man-machine-environment” networks of purely sonic interactions (e.g. the "Audible Ecosystemics" series, and the more recent "Modes of Interference" series). A recent special issue of "Contemporary Music Review" draws on Di Scipio’s artistic achievements in this direction. His music is available on various labels (RZ Edition, Chrysopeé Electronique, Wergo, Neuma, etc.). With pianist Ciro Longobardi, Di Scipio published a full-length realization of John Cage’s "Electronic Music for Piano" (Venice Biennale 2012, available on Stradivarius). With saxophonist and political agitator Mario Gabola, he runs the Upset duo exploring recycled analog circuitry ("Upset", Viande). His output also includes two chamber theatre works with poetry reading and electroacoustics, "Tiresia" and "Sound & Fury".
Di Scipio was an Artist-in-residence of DAAD Berlin (2004-2005) and other international residency programs. He was Edgar-Varèse-Professor at the Technische Universität, Berlin (2007-2008), guest professor in various international institutions and active member of the research team Ecologies du son at University Paris 8. Di Scipio has served as full-time professor in Electroacoustic Composition at the Conservatory of Naples (2001-2013). Today holds the same position in L’Aquila, a small medieval town in the Apennine mountains, where he lives.
His writings focus on cognitive and political implications of sound and music technologies (e.g. the volume "Pensare le tecnologie del suono e della musica", Naples 2013), issues that are also central in many of compositions and sound works (see the recent book + CD "Polveri sonore", La Camera Verde, Roma, 2014). He was a guest editor of the "Journal of New Music Research" for a special issue on Iannis Xenakis and is editor of various volumes including Xenakis’" Universi del suono" (Milan 2003), Michael Eldred’s "Heidegger, Holderlin & John Cage" (Rome 2000) and Gottfried Michael Koenig's "Genesi e forma" (Rome 1995).