MAURO PATRICELLI

Born in Ortona, in the Italian region of Abruzzo in 1969. After obtaining his degree in Classical piano, in Teramo in 1990, he continued his education in numerous Italian institutions of music. One of his most important sojourns was in Imola, which was his hometown between 1993 and 2006, and where he studied at the Piano Academy Incontri col Maestro with Franco Scala and Piernarciso Masi.

At the same time he attended the University of Bologna, pursuing an interdisciplinary education and combining musicological and historical studies. Obtained his Master’s degree in Oriental History in 1995, having presented a thesis on Moses Und Aron by Arnold Schönberg. His 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.

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, where he was director from 2004 to 2006.

His practice of composition has always accompanied his work as a pianist.

In 2000 he made his debut as a composer at the Teatro Marrucino in Chieti (Italy) with the dramatic chamber piece Kiss me J. - libretto by Nicola d’Alessandro - 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 live broadcast on Radio3 Suite, having been invited by 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 broadcast many times on RTSI (Radio e Televisione della Svizzera italiana) and Radio Rai3. Additionally, they were included in the repertory and performed by the London piano duo Duodort.

Three other pieces from his CDs 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 worked again on an experimental interpretation of folk tunes from Teramo in the Italian region of Abruzzo. The 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 collaborates as a correspondent for World Music Magazine (EDT, Torino), for whom he writes reviews of some important musical festivals in Denmark, amongst which Roskilde Festival.

In Copenhagen he collaborates with some musicians from the Danish scene. He made a new chamber music project which explores the possibilities of the modern drum set when combined with the piano. 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.

The project was performed first of all in Ravenna and Imola, and then in Denmark at the Italian Cultural Institute in Copenhagen. The same institute contributed to the production of a DVD introducing the project.

In December of 2007 he published the CD project Rabazera, musiche arcaiche e musiche nuove, funded by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Imola, which involved a full choir and a large ensemble.

He is currently engaged in a new venture, a chamber opera based on a libretto extracted from Colomba by Dacia Maraini, which was commissioned by Teatro Stabile Abruzzese. The opera will be premiered in the Teatro dell’Aquila in Spring 2009.

REWIEWS:

“Per le proprie composizioni Mauro Patricelli si è rifatto ad antico materiale di musica
popolare abruzzese elaborandolo con elementi della moderna musica colta, del jazz e
particolarmente del minimalismo. Ne nasce una musica coinvolgente, entusiasmante nei
suoi ritmi intricati di forza elementare, scintillanti cascate di suono.”
Radolf Jeschek, (Mittelbayerische)

“Non possiamo che sottolineare ancora una volta quanto sia importante l’approccio di
un musicista di estrazione colta come Mauro Patricelli all’immenso patrimonio della musica
popolare Il suo è un esempio che molti altri musicisti dovrebbero seguire.
Dischi come La partenza della sposa ridanno slancio ad una ricerca delle nostre radici che in
questo momento è davvero preziosa.”
Giancarlo Susanna, (Audio Review)

“Scura maje è un approccio originale alla tradizione filtrato attraverso le forme del
minimalismo americano, della musica colta europea e del jazz. Per quanto intellettualistica
e colta l’idea di tradizione espressa da Mauro Patricelli si caratterizza come una delle più
esclusive in circolazione nel nostro paese.”
Luca Ferrari, (Folk geneticamente modificato, Stampa Alternativa)

“Insieme a Chopin, Liszt e Ravel abbiamo ascoltato dei brani del compositore Mauro
Patricelli, di grande potenza ritmica, tanto da ricordarci György Ligeti, e di notevole effetto
sull’audience.”
Daniel Andres, (Klassisk Schweiz.)

“Ascoltando le musiche di Mauro Patricelli mi è venuto in mente Songs From Liquid
Days, il nobile fallimento di Philip Glass dove il compositore americano ha cercato di coniugare
lo stile minimalista con la forma canzone, ma nel caso di Mauro Patricelli mi sono detto: questo
è il lavoro da fare!”
Franco Fabbri, (Radio3 RAI)

“Il progetto di Mauro Patricelli, ottimo pianista, si è poi sviluppato nella collaborazione con
Diana Torto e Anton Berovski, dall’interazione fra questi tre musicisti è nata una delle opere più
interessanti e stimolanti mai realizzate in Italia in questo settore.”
Giancarlo Susanna, (Audio Review)

“Nelle musiche ricreate da Mauro Patricelli gli ostinati ritmici incontrano la melodia ancestrale e
sviluppano imprevedibilmente le potenzialità celate in quei canti, ne scaturisce una musica nuova
che ha il sapore di un melos antico che rinasce nel presente ad una nuova verginità.”
Pasquale Pignalosa, (D’Abruzzo)

“Mauro Patricelli è andato a rinnovare gli antichi suoni della musica popolare abruzzese.
Un’etnia immaginaria ma estremamente suggestiva, il suo Scura Maje”
Helmut Failoni, (L’Unità)