Biography
«His masterful craft
is the achievement of
a deep aesthetic vocation
and rigorous research discipline.»
La Scala String Quartet
Massimo Di Gesu attained the diplomas in Piano and Composition at the Conservatory of Milan. He studied composition with Bruno Bettinelli, and piano with Jole Mantegazza and Anita Porrini, one of the favourite pupils of Cortot and Benedetti Michelangeli.
Di Gesu’s distinctive atonal idiom stems from an idea of musical discourse according to which a note has meaning if it sounds necessary, i.e. gravitationally attracted to every other element of the texture.
His works have been performed in venues such as La Scala (Milan), La Fenice (Venice), Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall – New York), Salle Cortot (Paris), St. Martin in the Fields (London), Milan Auditorium, University of Milan, Teatro Dal Verme (Milan), Richter Memorial Apartment (Moscow).
Among his artistic partners: La Scala String Quartet, Wiener Virtuosen [soloists from the Wiener Philharmoniker], Ensemble Strumentale Scaligero [soloists from La Scala Orchestra], I Virtuosi Italiani, Maurizio Simeoli, Andrea Favalessa, Maria Semeraro, Mariangela Vacatello, Maurizio Zanini, Barbara Costa, Roberto Miele, Arcturus (Opera North), Peter Bradley-Fulgoni.
His long-term collaboration with the pianist Peter Bradley-Fulgoni has resulted in such works as Dionisiaco (2016), FUlGidA, Das Eismeer (2018), Enigma, and Rima Petrosa (2019), which are cited by Renzo Cresti in his “Musica presente” (2019, p. 775) as noteworthy expressions of the composer’s style.
«His masterful craft is the achievement of
a deep aesthetic vocation and rigorous research discipline.»
La Scala String Quartet
Massimo Di Gesu attained the diplomas in Piano and Composition at the Conservatory of Milan. He studied composition with Bruno Bettinelli, and piano with Jole Mantegazza and Anita Porrini, one of the favourite pupils of Cortot and Benedetti Michelangeli.
Di Gesu’s distinctive atonal idiom stems from an idea of musical discourse in which each sound is devised in such a way as to be perceived as necessary, inevitable, and having a gravitational attraction to every other element of the texture.
His works have been performed in venues such as La Scala (Milan), La Fenice (Venice), Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall – New York), Salle Cortot (Paris), St. Martin in the Fields (London), Milan Auditorium, University of Milan, Teatro Dal Verme (Milan), Richter Memorial Apartment (Moscow).
Among his artistic partners: La Scala String Quartet, Wiener Virtuosen [soloists from the Wiener Philharmoniker], Ensemble Strumentale Scaligero [soloists from La Scala Orchestra], I Virtuosi Italiani, Maurizio Simeoli, Andrea Favalessa, Maria Semeraro, Mariangela Vacatello, Maurizio Zanini, Barbara Costa, Roberto Miele, Arcturus (Opera North), Peter Bradley-Fulgoni.
His long-term collaboration with the pianist Peter Bradley-Fulgoni has resulted in such works as Dionisiaco (2016), FUlGidA, Das Eismeer (2018), Enigma, and Rima Petrosa (2019), which are cited by Renzo Cresti in his “Musica presente” (2019, p. 775) as noteworthy expressions of the composer’s style.