Benedetto Basile

Benedetto Basile: Multi-faceted musician working on many fronts, Basile first studied flute at the Conservatorio V.

Bellini in Palermo, and then under Glauco Cambursano, Maurizio Valentini and Nicola Mazzantini at the Accademia Internazionale di Musica di Novara and the Accademia Italiana del Flauto in Rome.
Basile’s journey in jazz began with the Arte e Tecnica dell’Improvvisazione course he took at Palermo’s Conservatorio di Musica V. Bellini and the Seminari Senesi di Musica Jazz. Now a winner of numerous national and international prizes, he has collaborated with various artists, leading to works produced by Rai Trade, Casa Editoriale Sonzogno, and Sony, among others.
At the Centro delle Arti e delle Culture Arci Tavola Tonda of Palermo, Basile was the musical coordinator of the Artigiani Culturali project, financed by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, and he also directed the Orchestra Popolare. He is also part of the group LassatilAbballari, for which he composed several original songs, recorded in the album Suoni delle danze del sud. In these capacities, he has performed in hundreds of concerts in Italy, Poland, Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the US. This work has also permitted him to lead workshops and classes on flute and improvisation.
In 2014, he conducted research on collective improvisation, which led him to explore Lawrence D. ‘Butch’ Morris’ methodology of Conduction® and exercise this ‘conductor’ activity in practice with various, often multidisciplinary, ensembles. These ‘conducted’ ensembles included Ensemble U from Tallin, the Werkstatt Für Improvisierte Musik from Bern, the Wuppertaler Improvisations Orchester, the Instant Composers Pool, and the Sicilian Improvisers Orchestra (SIO). Further, Basile codified a system of graphic symbols tied to the directives of Conduction® that permit pre-ordained ‘conduction’ by defining the form before its execution, rather than while the piece is already in course, as usually occurs. This system has found practical form in a series of graphic scores intitled Oracles. Basile has also led a masterclass on Conduction® and improvisation in music for the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre’s CoPeCo project (Master’s in Contemporary Performance and Composition).
As a member of the Sicilian Improvisers Orchestra (SIO) – an internationally-renowned ensemble specializing in contemporary music related to so-called New Music, as well as late 20th century avant-garde, and forms of extemporaneous improvisation – Basile is active as both a flautist and a composer. As part of SIO, he has participated in several creative residencies in Italy, Switzerland and Germany. He has collaborated, amongst others, with Silke Eberhard, Michael Fischer, Jeremy Peyton Jones, Edoardo Marraffa, Sebastian Gramss, Carl Ludwig Übsch, Gunda Gottschalk, Ulrich Gumpert, Christian Kobi, Daniele Roccato, Michel Doneda, Judith Wegmann, Philippe Festou, and Christopher Dell. With the latter, the ensemble produced the album The working concert (Revision II) and The working concert (Revision III). Alongside the SIO, Basile collaborated with Gianni Trovalusci and Eva Geraci to perform the world premiere of Variations on Cards in the Faces of Roses for three flutes by Roscoe Mitchell, and an unedited version of Veni creator by Marcello Panni.
In 2016, with the label MAP Classics, Basile publishes his first solo album intitled FLUTE XXI Project. The album’s track Sahara reached number sixteen on iTunes Canada’s Classical Music chart.
Basile has long collaborated with the Curva Minore Piccolo Ensemble, work that continues to this day. With the ensemble, he performed the world premiere of Un sol momento, a composition dedicated to the trio of the composer Maria Radeschi. The ensemble performed in Italy, Estonia, France, Germany and Switzerland.
In 2018, Basile participated, in the role of workshop leader, in the Opening Performance organized by the Great Learning Orchestra of Stockholm, at the Magazzino Brancaccio of Palermo, as a collateral event of Manifesta 12 art biennial. His latest projects include, notably, the performance of Il mio corpo fiorisce da ogni vena in collaboration with Mara Rubino, freely inspired by the Libro Rosso (Red Book) of C.G. Jung.