Ivan Fedele was born in Lecce in 1953. He studied piano with B. Canino, V. Vitale and I. Deckers, and composition under the guidance of R. Dionisi, A. Corghi and F. Donatoni. At the same time, he studied philosophy at the University of Milan, with E. Paci, L. Geymonat, R. Mangione and R. Cantoni. He owns to his father, a mathematician, the passion for mathematics, as it becomes evident in his compositional researches, including the examination and use of the concept of “spatialisation” (Duo en résonance, Ali di Cantor, Donacis Ambra), the formulation of a “library” of creative processes and the definition of a prototype of “granular synthesizer”, like the one used for the realization of the electronic part of Richiamo (for brass, percussions and electronics – IRCAM 1993). His piece Capt-Actions (for string quartet, accordion and electronics) uses for the first time a new system of “capteurs”, which are able to send all data regarding the contours of a musical gesture directly to the computer, which, in turn, interprets this information, on real time, according to the archetypes of modulation set a priori by the composer. Capt-Actions has been premiered at the Arsenale in Metz, in April 2005. This new technology, which has been developed by Thierry Coduys in the “Kitchen” studios of Paris, opens up new compositional perspectives, yet unexplored.
Ivan Fedele’s catalogue, edited by Suvini Zerboni, consists of about a hundred titles, to which one should add the opera Antigone, commissioned by the Teatro Comunale of Florence for the inauguration of the Festival “Maggio Fiorentino”, in May 2007, which has been awarded the XXVII “Abbiati” Prize of the Italian Music Critics Association for the “best new work of 2007”. In addition to a large body of chamber music, he has also written works for orchestra alone or with concertante instrument, as well as vocal-orchestral pieces of which En archè, 33 noms (commissioned by La Scala Theatre in Milan) and La pierre et l’étang (…les temps…) are the most recent. He has collaborated with Boulez, Eschenbach, Chung, Saalonen, Muti, Pappano, Slatkin, Robertson, Kalitze, Wit, Valade and Rophé, among others, and his music has been performed by various orchestras and ensembles, like for instance: BBC, Berlin Radio, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart SWR, National de France, National de Lyon, Warsaw Symphony Orchestra, RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Santa Cecilia, Ensemble InterContemporain, London Sinfonietta, Klangforum Wien, etc.
The recording Animus Anima (Cd Stradivarius STR 33629) has been awarded the prize “Choc de la Musique 2003” from “Le Monde de la Musique”, while Maja (Cd L’Empreinte Digitale ED 13198) has received the “Coup de Coeur 2004” from the “Académie Charles Cros”. In 2007 the recording Mixtim (Cd Stradivarius 33717) won the 11th edition of the “Premio del Disco Amadeus” for the category contemporary music. In the monographic Cd released in 2009 and entitled Mosaïque (Stradivarius STR 33850), the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai and the violin soloist Francesco D’Orazio play all his concertante works with violin. In2011 the Cd/Dvd which includes all Fedele’s compositions for piano played by Ciro Longobardi(Limen CDVD004C004) won the Special Prize of the Critics/Classic of the magazine Musica & Dischi.
Ivan Fedele carries also an intense academic activity, which has seen him participating to the activities of important institutions, like Harvard University, University of Barcelona, Sorbonne and IRCAM in Paris, Sibelius Academy of Helsinki, Chopin Academy of Warsaw, Centre Acanthes in Avignon, CNSM in Lyon and CNR of Strasbourg as well as Italian Conservatoires, namely Milan, Bologna and Turin. In 2000 he has been awarded the honour of “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Lettres et des Arts” by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2005 Fedele has been appointed Member of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 2007 the Italian Ministry of Culture entrusted him with the Professorship of Composition for the “Corsi di Perfezionamento in Studi Musicali” at the same Accademia. From 2009 to 2011 he has been the Artistic Director of the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali of Milan. He is appointed Director of the Music section of the Venice Biennale for the five-year period 2012-2016, and has been reappointed until 2019. In 2016, the Fondation de France awarded him the Prix International “Arthur Honegger”, for all of his work.
President of the Board of Judges of the 2021 and 2022 Editions
