Matteo Franceschini

Thursday 3 October 2019, 8:00 pm
Teatro Toniolo, Mestre

La Biennale di Venezia has attributed the Silver Lion to the Italian composer and rising star Matteo Franceschini.

One of the most original voices of our time and a champion of the concept of composer as author-performer, Matteo Franceschini bases his music “on a sensibility open to the different creative dimensions of sound” – as the motivation reads. From chamber and symphonic music to musical theatre, from augmented acoustic music to the most innovative experiences in the field of electronics, his career is distinguished by his curious inquisitive intelligence and his effective style, which is extremely communicative even in its most complex forms, which merge artistic experiences ranging beyond the sphere of cultured music and deriving from his assiduous practice of rock music as well”.

Significant in this sense is the piece that Matteo Franceschini has composed for the 63rd International Festival of Contemporary Music (27 September > 6 October): Songbook for rock quartet, amplified ensemble and live electronics, which is representative of his syncretic research. Commissioned by La Biennale di Venezia, the piece will be performed by the Icarus and Cantus ensembles on October 3rd (Teatro Toniolo in Mestre), for the awards ceremony of the Silver Lion.

Matteo Franceschini (Trento, 1979) – He graduated from the “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatoire in Milan under the guidance of Alessandro Solbiati. He studied at “Santa Cecilia” National Academy in Rome under the supervision of Azio Corghi and attended the Cursus offered by the Ircam in Paris.

Matteo Franceschini concentrates his research on theatricality of musical gesture and on the necessity of pulling different languages together by following the rules of contrast and fusion.

In 2017, Franceschini adopted TOVEL as his stage name. As TOVEL, he relaunches the figure of the author/interpreter. His direct, live involvement becomes therefore the expression of a creative act.

He has realized operas, orchestral and choral works, chamber music, performances as well as multimedia installations.


He has received commissions from La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Wigmore Hall, Biennale di Venezia, Festival Mito, Philharmonie de Paris, Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, National Orchestra of Belgium, Reims Opera, Saint-Étienne Opera and, moreover, from important festivals and organizations. Since 2011 he is published by Casa Ricordi – Universal Music Publishing.