Composers Festival spotlight: Alessandro Ratoci

Alessandro Ratoci has the longest journey of any of this year’s resident composers to get to the 2015 Mizzou International Composers Festival, coming to Columbia from Lausanne, Switzerland, where he teaches electronic music at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève (Geneva University of Music).

Born in Tuscany, Italy, Ratoci majored in composition, piano, and electronic music at the University of Bologna, and then went on to earn his master’s degree in composition at Geneva University of Music, studying with Michael Jarrell, Luis Naón and Eric Daubresse.

He then moved to Paris to continue his studies of composition and electronic performance at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM).

Ratoci’s compositions have been played by groups including PRIME Recorder Ensemble, Ictus Ensemble, the ensemble of HEM Geneve and Quartetto Fiorentino, with performances at events such as Festival Archipel in Geneva, Milano Musica in Milan, Angelica Festival Internazionale di Musica and Musica Insieme in Bologna, and “In My Life,” held at the Parco della Musica in Rome.

You can hear samples of Alessandro Ratoci’s music in the embedded YouTube and SoundCloud players below.

“Rima Flow’ for tuba and electronics, recorded April 2, 2015 at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, featuring Jean Baptiste Renaux (tuba).

“Le journal du Colonel Astral” for actor, soprano, and amplified ensemble of nine performers and electronics