Italian composer, pianist and music researcher, whose own work includes neo-minimalism, contemporary jazz and also post-opera projects. Deeply rooted in the European classical music tradition, Mauro Patricelli's work also offers an experimental approach to music theatre by using ethno-musicological studies, documentary sources, video art and live performance. He was born in Ortona, in the Italian region of Abruzzo in 1969. Since 2007 he has been based in the Nordic city of Copenhagen, where he, among other things, has produced and directed two chamber operas and composed works for keyboard and percussion instruments. Since 2010 he has been commissioned to compose works by several contemporary music ensembles.
Mauro Patricelli's music genre blends European tradition, modern jazz, neo-minimalism, music anthropology, folk music tunes and post-opera elements. The style cultivates an interdisciplinary approach seeking to integrate documentary sources with stage performance.
After obtaining his degree in classical piano in Teramo in 1990, he continued his education in numerous Italian music institutions. One of his most significant sojourns was in Imola, where he lived between 1993 and 2006, and where he continued his musical studies at the Piano Academy with Franco Scala and Piernarciso Masi. At the same time he attended the University of Bologna, pursuing an interdisciplinary specialisation, where he combined musicological and historical studies. By 1995 he obtained his Master’s degree in Oriental History, having presented a thesis on Moses Und Aron by Arnold Schönberg. His final paper, based on the same subject, was published by the journal Università Aperta (1996, Imola). He studied also ethnomusicology with Roberto Leydi at the Bologna University and this experience further stimulated his interest in oral music traditions, and subsequently worked on field recordings of folk songs in the area of Chieti, in the Italian region of Abruzzo between1989-1995. After a wide-ranging career as a classical pianist, he turned to Afro-american music and took the Improvised Music course at the Conservatory of Bologna, taught by Paolo Birro, Tommaso Lama, and Stefano Zenni. He undertook an extensive interpretive study of the whole of Scott Joplin’s rag-time production, combining this study period with performances of a good selection of works by Joplin and Bela Bartòk, as well as some of his own compositions. He worked on an overview of music migrations, presenting it in the form of lecture at several high schools in Imola. A paper based on this work was published by the journal Educazione Interculturale (2005, Bologna). He taught piano at the City Centre of Modern Music in Imola (Italy) from 1998 to 2005, whereat he became the director from 2004 to 2006. His practice of composition has always accompanied his work as a pianist. In 2000 he made his debut at the Teatro Marrucino in Chieti (Italy) with the dramatic chamber piece Kiss me J. for alto, 8 actors, choir and ensemble, in which he experimented with his own style of minimalistic song influenced by folk music. In the same year he completed the ethno-minimalistic project Scura Maje, nuovi Suoni della Musica Popolare D’Abruzzo (Menabò: Pescara, 2001). In June 2001 he performed Scura Maje in Milan for a live broadcast on Radio3 Suite, by invitation of Franco Fabbri. In 2002 La Partenza della Sposa for quintet, also featuring the saxophonist Javier Girotto, was released (Ecamlab: Pescara, 2002). Two pieces of this CD, Museum e Spallata, transcribed for piano for four hands, were performed at the Martha Argerich Festival in Lugano in 2003 by Misha Dacic and Giorgia Tomassi and was broadcasted many times on RTSI (Radio e Televisione della Svizzera italiana) and Radio Rai3. Additionally, these pieces were included in the repertory and performed by the London piano duo Duodort. Three other pieces from his CD's were published in World Music Magazine (EDT: Turin, 2003) in the anthology Tribù Italiche, a musical series distributed all over Europe. In 2004 in a solo piano project he returned to an experimental interpretation of folk tunes from Teramo, in the Italian region of Abruzzo. This music project was performed in Imola, Pescara, Faenza, Regensburg, and Copenhagen. In October 2006 the RTSI (Radio e Televisione della Svizzera italiana) in Lugano dedicated a broadcast to him, which was presented by Christian Gilardi, and consisted of an interview and excerpts from his performances and compositions. He is a permanent correspondent for the World Music Magazine (EDT, Torino), for which he writes reviews on some important musical festivals in Denmark, covering among others Roskilde Festival. In Copenhagen he collaborates with several musicians from the Danish scene. He recently released a new chamber music project, which explores the possibilities of the modern drum set combined with the piano (2014). The pieces are derived from the Classical étude form and focus either on a single aspect of drums technique or a specific sound mélange between piano and percussion.