On the occasion of the 20th anniversary, we have entered into a key collaboration with the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali "Giuseppe Verdi" in Ravenna. The soundtrack of NOSFERATU, conceived and performed by the students of the music composition course, will open the 20th edition of the festival.
According to Anna Maria Storace, Director of the Institute:
"This new activity is of great importance to us. The Institute accepts the proposal of collaboration by including, in the official curriculum, the composition of an original soundtrack for one of the masterpieces of German expressionist cinema, the silent film "NOSFERATU - Eine Symphonie des Grauens" ["Nosferatu, a symphony of horrors"] by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the opera. The Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali "Giuseppe Verdi," providing artistic and technological expertise, is developing a compositional project that includes an electronic part and a part to be entrusted to traditional instruments, so as to allow the instrumental performance of the soundtrack live during the screening of the film. The instrumental ensemble plans for an ensemble of seven performers, entrusted to Ensemble 20.21. The project will be carried out as part of the specific teachings of Composition for Music Applied to Images and Sound Design taught by Prof. Paolo Marzocchi, and is in line with the institutional interests and goals for the twentieth-century and contemporary repertoire. Ensemble 20.21, formed within the ISSM, is a specific project of study and performance of the 20th century and contemporary repertoire, formed by students who deepen and research in this musical field followed by tutor teachers also with the intervention of external experts of high international importance."
The Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali "G. Verdi"
An institution deputed to higher musical education in the city of Ravenna, Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali "G. Verdi" has opened up in recent years to research and experimentation, through the activation of new study projects, interaction with various cultural institutions in the area and beyond, and openness to the city's youth reality, and thanks to the fruitful new location at the Polo delle arti in Kennedy Square, a venue inaugurated less than a year ago for Ravenna's higher artistic and musical education activities (Academy of Fine Arts and "G. Verdi" Institute).
In addition to the structural courses with a long tradition, divided into propedeutic, three-year and two-year academic courses, there are pre-propedeutic courses, aimed at acquiring the skills and abilities necessary for access to propedeutic courses (the minimum age for access is 12), a Level II master's degree in Singing chamber repertoire and 20th-century and contemporary music theater, the new activation of free courses in pop-rock music, and the Verdi Teaching Orchestra project, an ensemble music workshop consisting of students from the Institute and young musicians who wish to be part of it.
Ensemble 20.21
A recent reality, but already widely active within the Institute and the city's cultural life, is Ensemble 20.21, made up of students from the Institute itself, which devotes itself to the repertoire from the 20th century to contemporary music, participating in the Institute's educational and production activities and actively collaborating with the teachers and external guests specially involved. Its "vocation for the new" makes it one of the privileged instruments for the Department of Composition, with which a fruitful collaboration was immediately established, as well as the ideal venue for experimentation, in the field of contemporary music, but also in the dialogue with other artistic languages.
The Ensemble made its debut in 2019 in a concert at the Sala Corelli of the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna and participated in the 2021 Ravenna Festival with Esercizi for voice and cello by Societas Raffaello Sanzio with Chiara Guidi and Francesco Guerri, and with Incipit - Giovani artisti per Dante, and in the 2022 edition with Frammenti infernali, text and direction by Andrea De Luca, at Classics in Bologna. Since 2022 he has been collaborating with the Master's Degree in Singing - Vocal Music and Musical Theater of the Twentieth-Century and Contemporary at the ISSM "G. Verdi" in Ravenna.
