Biography

Luigi Antonio Irlandini, Brazilian/Italian composer and pianist born in Rio de Janeiro, composes music for choir, orchestra, solo instruments and chamber ensembles using not only western traditional instrumentation but also combining western and non-western instruments. Of special interest are percussion instruments, recorders, the shakuhachi, the solo voice and vocal groups a cappella. The co-existence of western and non-western, musical and philosophical, modern and ancient concepts, gives to his music a characteristic sound, and a strong interdisciplinary trait.

Several of his works have been composed in direct collaboration with soloists, ensembles, and festivals, such as the following:

• Agnistoma II, for four recorder players, commissioned by the Milan-based Associazione Musica Reservata for the Festival "Simboli e Allegorie del Sacro nella Musica Strumentale Antica e Contemporanea", in Vicenza and Varese, Italy, 1998.
• Sol das Almas (Sun of Souls), for guitar, commissioned in 1999 by Italian guitarrist Silvia Cesco for her CD "Phantasie, musica per chitarra del secolo XX".
• Pythagoras, for tenor recorder, commissioned in 2000 by Dutch recorder virtuoso Prof. Eva Legêne, from the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, Bloominfton, USA.
• Partita, for six recorder players, commissioned by Brisk Recorder Quartet Amsterdam and Duix Recorder Duo for their concert season "In Stile Antico e Moderno: A concert of 16th-century and modern music for recorders", in Amsterdam, Maastricht and Middleburg, Holand, 2003.
• Porta do Sol…nos Confins do Mundo (Sun Door…at World's End), for soprano and eight cellos, commissioned by the X RICE (Tenth Rio International Cello Encounter), in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2005.
• Metagon, for shakuhachi, in collaboration with artist Jean Pierre Hébert, for the live realization of his spiral sand sculpture Metagon, Santa Barbara, California, 2008.

Irlandini received a special mention for his composition Sacrifício for mixed choir a cappella at the New London Chamber Choir's 20th Anniversary Composition Competition in London, 2001.

Madrigal de Fogo (Madrigal of Fire), for mezzosoprano, strings and percussion, received first prize at the Chamber Music Corwin Competition Contest in Santa Barbara, 1996.

Irlandini studied composition:

• in Brazil, with Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, in Rio de Janeiro;
• in Italy, with Franco Donatoni, in Biella and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena,
  and with Franco Cioci, at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence;
• in California, with Stephen L. Mosko at CalArts,
  and with Brian Ferneyhough at the University of California, San Diego.

Irlandini studied classical piano in Rio de Janeiro with Estela Caldi, Luiz Henrique Senise and Nereida Nogueira.

Egberto Gismonti produced Irlandini's piano improvisation LP Azul e Areia (Blue and Sand) with his recording label CARMO in 1985.

Irlandini has done extensive work with experimental theater groups, specially group
QÁ BAL O QUÁ, by Brazilian theater director Isabela Timm Fymminz, in Rome, from 1991 to 1994, touring with the theatrical street performance Allegorie del Caos in several Italian cities.

From 2001 to 2010, Irlandini has taught music, singing, recorders, and violin and directed children's choirs and strings orchestra in the following American Steiner elementary and high schools: Waldorf School of San Diego (California), Santa Fe Waldorf School (New Mexico), and Ashwood Waldorf School in Rochport, Maine. Irlandini received his specialized training in anthroposophic pedagogy and musical anthroposophic pedagogy of the School of Uncovering the Voice in courses and workshops for teachers at the Waldorf Institute of Southern California (Northridge), Rudof Steiner College (Sacramento, California), and Sunbridge College (Chestnut Ridge, New York).

Currently, Luigi Antonio Irlandini is Adjunct Professor and Researcher at the Department of Music, Arts Center (CEART), of the Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, UDESC, in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brasil, since 2010, teaching Harmony, Counterpoint, Analysis, and Composition. Click here to see Irlandini's Lattes curriculum (Brazilian academic system's cv).

Irlandini has been Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara between 1999 an 2002. In this capacity he worked at the Center for Research in Electronic Art and Technology (CREATE) with composer Prof. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, and, at the UCSB Music Department, with musicologist Prof. Michael Beckerman, in the preparation of his book New Worlds of Dvorák. Irlandini has taught composition and twentieth-century music courses as Lecturer for one year at UCSB (1998-1999).

Ph.D. in Music, Composition: University of California, Santa Barbara, UCSB, 1998.
M.F.A. in Music, Composition: California Institute of the Arts, CALARTS, Valencia, California, 1990.
B.M. in Music, Piano Performance: Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, UNI-RIO, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1987.