2007 festival
From 2005 to 2007, soundSCAPE was held in Cortona, Italy and aptly named the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival. The Medieval hill town of Cortona is perhaps best known as the setting for movies such as Under the Tuscan Sun, and Life is Beautiful. The festival was held from 13-22 July and was produced by Toscana Americana; Patrick Mahoney, Executive Director. Innovations included the addition of a composition laboratory, featuring electronic keyboards with headphones for use by participant composers. For a first-hand account, visit Anne Ku's travelogue, which contains many wonderful photos and mp3s.
soundSCAPE award
The ratio of composers to performers being 4/1, the festival was witness to a wonderful variety of new pieces. Inspired by these individual voices, the faculty decided to commission one participant composer for a piece. Presented at the close of the festival, the first soundSCAPE Commission was awarded to Chris Williams, a student at the University of Sydney in Australia. Chris's piece Moonlight, and the sorrow will be premiered by the faculty in 2008.
guest artists
Residencies provide participants an opportunity to work closely with leading artists in a variety of disciplines. 2007 Cortona guest artists included pianist/career coach Anne Ku and guitarist Robert Bekkers.
performances
Performances at Cortona were hosted in various halls of the hotel conference center. The series featured seven recitals, with 22 pieces receiving their world premiere. The following participants were featured in recital: pianists Antoine Françoise and Michele Chiasserini, and composer-pianist Man-Ching Donald Yu. Download complete program details here.
participants
COMPOSERS |
country |
PERFORMERS |
country |
Francesco Bianchi |
Italy |
Michele Chiasserini, piano |
Italy |
Brittney Bonney |
USA |
Antoine Françoise, piano |
Switzerland |
Sebastian Cano-Besquet |
USA |
Michael Peplinski, guitar |
USA |
Hakki Eren |
North Cyprus |
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Hong Kong |
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Italy |
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Alla Penkina |
Russia |
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Jeffrey Peplinski |
USA |
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USA |
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Dennis Reyes III |
Philippines |
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Italy |
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Australia |
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Hong Kong |