Described as an unicum in the compositional landscape of our times (Il Corriere Musicale) Alessio Elia is today considered among the most original composers of the new generation (la Repubblica, Universal Music Publishing, Muzsika, Radio Vaticana, Die Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung). Elia received commissions most importantly from I Solisti del Teatro alla Scala di Milano (Octet), piece released in CD by Warner Classics in 2018, conducted by Andrea Vitello and published by Universal Music Publishing – EMB; Radio Bartók (orchestral piece Trasparenze) for the ArTRIUM series of the National Hungarian Radio Orchestra; Alter Ego ensemble (Altered memories) for a project including commissions to Peter Eötvös, Toshio Hosokawa, Peter Ablinger, Lukas Ligeti, László Sáry and Howard Skempton; Impronta ensemble (Traces from Nowhere) for the Oggimusica Festival in Lugano; UMZE – the historical ensemble founded by Bartók (Ekpyrotic Suicide); Wiener Collage, with members of the Wiener Philharmoniker (Outskirts of matter); Antal Dorati Conducting Competition (Distimement for large orchestra) as a complusory piece for the final round of the conducting contest; Nuova Consonanza (Il Canto segreto, in memoriam Giovanni Piazza), Stuttgart Kammerchor conducted by Frieder Bernius (Incantesimi di Merseburg) and Celestial keys for the Ligeti 100 Festival, as a piece to be performed together with “Clocks and Clouds” with which it shares the same choral and instrumental forces.
Trained internationally he studied composition in Italy, Hungary and Germany, graduating at the S. Cecilia Academy of Music in Rome under the guidance of Giovanni Piazza. He completed postgraduate courses in Italy at the National Academy of Music S. Cecilia in Rome and at the Chigiana Academy of Music in Siena, and abroad at the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt with Brian Ferneyhough, Toshio Hosokawa, and Georg Friedrich Haas, as well as at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Zoltán Jeney. Consultations with Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen also had a significant role in the process of his professional development. He obtained the post-master’s degree in Composition at the Hochschule für Musik Mannheim, studying with Sidney Corbett, a former student of György Ligeti. Elia earned his PhD cum laude at the University of Rome Tor Vergata with a dissertation about the Hamburgisches Konzert by Ligeti (first comprehensive monograph on this topic). Guest composer and researcher at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, the State University of Debrecen, the Zoltán Kodály Institute in Kecskemét, the Sacher Foundation in Basel, and the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, he was also lecturer in composition in 2010 at the latter.
His music has been performed in significant concert halls and festivals worldwide (Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome; Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest; Menuhin Festival in Oslo; Festival Erkel-Mahler in Budapest; Accademia Filarmonica Romana; BMC – Budapest Music Center; Bartók Hall of Palace of Arts – The National Auditorium in Budapest; Levinsalen and Lindemansalen in Oslo; Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna; Kongresshaus Stadthalle Heidelberg; Mannheimer Kunstverein; LAC – Lugano Arte e Cultura Auditorium; National Hungarian Radio Studios; Forum Neue Musik – Palais Prinz Carl in Heidelberg; Auditorium del Parco by Renzo Piano in L’Aquila; Oggimusica Festival in Lugano; Contemporary Arts Festival Budapest; Yamaha Concert Hall Wien, Festival Nuova Consonanza in Rome, Kulturpalast Dresden, etc.).
Elia’s works were broadcast by state radios and TV channels, such as: Radio Bartók (Hungary); Saarländischer Rundfunk (Germany); RAI Radio 3 (Italy); Hungarian Catholic Radio; Magyar Televízió and Duna TV (Hungarian State TV); Radio Vaticana.
He has released interviews about his music for: Cité de la musique in Paris, Magyar Televízió and Duna TV, Bartók Radio, Radio Vaticana, Dal+Szerző – Magazine of the Hungarian Bureau for the Protection of Authors’ Rights, Muzsika – the most important Hungarian journal for classical music, Musica +, Budapest Music Centre, RAI Radio 3 Suite, RAI Cultura, and the Peter Eötvös Foundation.
His activity as a composer and researcher has taken him on a tour of conferences around Europe (Norway, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Italy etc.), among them the most important were at:
Cité de la musique in Paris; Internationales Musikinstitute Darmstadt; Accademia Filarmonica Romana; Chigiana Academy in Siena; Canal C2 –Université de Strasbourg; The Hungarian Academy of Arts; Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Mannheim; Eötvös József University, Baja (Hungary); Norwegian Academy of Music; The University of Performing Arts Prague; Kampnagel Internationale Kulturfabrik in Hamburg during the Symposium “Ligeti und die Mikrotonalität”, presented by Louise Duchesneau, secretary of Ligeti, with the extraordinary contribution of Paul Griffiths, first biographer of Ligeti.
In 2008 he was invited by the Hungarian State TV, for an interview about The Magician’s Death his opera based on the life and artistic activity of the Hungarian writer Géza Csáth.
Ten portrait concerts of his music have been organized in Budapest, Oslo and Rome since 2006 (most significant venues: two times at Sala Verdi of the Italian Institute of Culture in Budapest, the first time within the Festival “Contemporanea”, dedicated to Alessio Elia, Ivan Fedele and Luciano Berio, organized by the Italian Embassy in Budapest, the second concert for celebrating his ten years of musical activity in Hungary; Lindemansalen, Levinsalen in Oslo; Accademia Filarmonica Romana, for the Festival “She Lives” dedicated to Alessio Elia, Péter Eötvös and Zoltán Jeney).
His recent pieces take inspiration from scientific subjects, such as String Theory, M-Theory, and quantum physics. Some works of his compositional output are addressed to the integration of different kinds of tuning systems in a process of developing the sonic material he named “Polysystemism”, discussed in many conferences and lectures, among them the one at “Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine” of the Cité de la Musique in Paris. The most significant works in this direction are Beyond Perturbative States, Conifold transitions, Traces from Nowhere and the orchestral pieces Dimensioni nascoste (Hidden Dimensions) and Trasparenze.
Elia is the recipient of several prizes, among them the Chigiana Merit Award 2005 for the piece Luminescences and the 1st prize for the piece Rejtett dimenziók (Hidden Dimensions) in the orchestral category of UMZF 2013 (Hungarian Forum for New Music) Competition, in the year dedicated to Ligeti, with Péter Eötvös presiding over the jury. In 2016 his orchestral piece Labirynthum continui was awarded a “Leibniz’s Harmonies Prize” in Hannover.
Supported by NKA (Hungarian National Cultural Fund) he wrote the Clarinet Concerto Implicate Inklings for Csaba Klenyán as solo clarinet and Concerto Budapest Orchestra conducted by Zoltán Rácz, performed on 4 May 2019 at the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest.
Born in Rome in 1979, Elia has lived in different cities in Europe (Rome, Budapest, Odense, Oslo, Debrecen and Berlin). Right now he is based in Budapest and Rome.