Franco Alfano

Franco Alfano
(b Posillipo, Naples, 8 March 1875; d San Remo, 27 Oct 1954). Italian composer. After studying the piano privately with Alessandro Longo, and harmony and composition with Camillo de Nardis and Serrao at the Conservatorio di S Pietro a Majella, Naples, he moved in 1895 to Leipzig, where he completed his composition studies with Jadassohn.

In 1896 he went to Berlin and launched himself as a pianist, though he did not continue this activity systematically for long: in later life he appeared in public only as a song accompanist and chamber music player, mainly in his own works. From 1899 until about 1905 he was based in Paris, but travelled as far afield as Russia. He then settled in Milan, moving in 1914 to San Remo, which remained at least his summer home for the rest of his life. From 1916 he taught composition at the Liceo Musicale, Bologna, which he directed from 1918. While there (1920), he helped to found the society Musica Nova, which in some ways paralleled Casella’s more important Società Italiana di Musica Moderna. Alfano was appointed director of the Liceo Musicale (later Conservatory) of Turin in 1923, remaining there until 1939. During 1940–42 he was superintendent of the Teatro Massimo, Palermo, subsequently becoming for a few months professor of operatic studies at the Conservatorio di S Cecilia, Rome. From 1947 to 1950 he served as acting director of the Liceo Musicale, Pesaro.