Flavio Emilio Scogna

Flavio Emilio Scogna received his musical and cultural training in Genoa, Bologna and Rome, studying composition and conducting. He graduated in music from the University of Bologna, studied conducting with Franco Ferrara in 1982–83 and collaborated with Luciano Berio from 1984 to 1988.

His works have been performed at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Teatro Comunale di Firenze, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Auditorium Nacional in Madrid and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. They have been recorded for RCA and BMG Ariola and broadcast by major European radio and television networks, including RAI, BBC, RNE, BRT and Radio France. In 1998 he represented RAI at the Prix Italia with the radio work L’arpa magica, on a text by Edoardo Sanguineti. He has given lectures and seminars on his compositions in Europe and at several colleges in the United States. In October 2002 he conducted his opera La memoria perduta, commissioned by the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and staged by Pier’Alli.

Alongside composition, he has pursued an international conducting career since 1990. His repertoire encompasses classical and operatic works, twentieth-century music and contemporary premieres. He has championed and, in several cases, prepared editions of music by Pergolesi, Boccherini and Rossini. His work in twentieth-century repertoire includes Satie and Nino Rota, whose opera I due timidi he recorded in its world-premiere recording.

He has conducted the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra, the RAI Symphony Orchestra, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, the Ra’anana Symphonette in Israel, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy, I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini and the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. His collaborations with ensembles include Alternance in Paris, Accademia Bizantina, Círculo in Madrid and the Ensemble Strumentale Scaligero. In 1995 he conducted the opening concert of the Venice Biennale’s centenary celebrations.

From 1999 he conducted the Cantelli Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica d’Italia in Milan for the NovecentoMusica festival, under the artistic direction of Luigi Pestalozza. His discography includes recordings for BMG/RCA Red Seal, Brilliant Classics, Curci, RicordiMediastore, Fonit Cetra, Dynamic, Tactus and Bongiovanni. His recording of works by Schnittke for Dynamic (S 2030) received Répertoire magazine’s highest rating, 10, in 2000. He conducted the Ensemble Contemporaneo of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia from 2006 to 2009 and became principal conductor of the Bari Symphony Orchestra in 2009. In 2013 he received the Vittorio De Sica Award for Classical Music, whose previous recipients included Claudio Abbado, Luciano Berio and Riccardo Muti.