Carlo Forlivesi
Musician, Composer, Musicologist.
Carlo Forlivesi
Musician, Composer, Musicologist.
Carlo Forlivesi (*1971, Italy) was born in Faenza, near Bologna, and pursued studies throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s in the cities of Paris (France), Barcelona (Spain), Bologna, Milan and Rome (Italy). In the realm of electroacoustic music, he has worked at IRCAM and its Danish equivalent, DIEM, before joining the faculty at Tokyo Music College, Northwestern University, and Sapporo University. His main pursuit in the years following was traditional Japanese music and dance (Nihonbuyo, Jiutamai), including the ethnic music of the Ainu, which he has subsequently researched and practised for over ten years.
Over three decades, he has pursued a number of contrasting musical directions, and has written for a fascinating diversity of ensembles, across an impressive range of genres. A refined performer and sought-after educator, Forlivesi’s music is sophisticated and virtuosic, yet with a magical touch of beauty, making his compositions and concerts loved by listeners across many cultures.
Carlo Forlivesi has been a professor at the Rossini State Conservatory of Pesaro (Italy) and at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart (Germany).
He has lectured widely in Europe, USA, Japan and Australia receiving invitations from the National High Conservatory of Music and Dance of Paris (CNSMDP), the Conservatory Paris-Boulogne, the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, the Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, the Loyola University, the Los Angeles Music College, the University of Pittsburgh, the National University of Fine Arts and Music of Tokyo, the Tokyo Opera City, the JML Irino Institute of Tokyo, the Kyoto University of Arts, the Seika University, the Osaka Music College Music, the Sapporo University, the University of Adelaide, the University of Melbourne, the Monash University, the University of Wellington, etc.
Forlivesi also held visiting Erasmus Professorships at the University Paris IV Sorbonne (France 2011 and 2013), at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst of Stuttgart (Germany 2017), at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt and the Bauhaus University of Weimar (Germany 2018), at the Musikhogskolan Stockholm, the Swedish Royal College of Music (Sweden 2019), and at the Academy of Music. I.J. Paderewski of Poznan (Poland 2020 – postponed).
His compositions are performed all around the world in major venues: Tokyo Opera City, Beurs van Berlage Yakult Hall Amsterdam, Opéra National de Lyon, IRCAM, GRAME, Radio-France, Finnish National Theatre, Puccini Hall Milan, Ljubljana Festival, Dresden Festspielhaus, Berlin BKA, GMEM Marseille, ABC Iwaki Auditorium Melbourne, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto Ritsumeikan Concert Hall, and several other venues in Paris, Avignon, Metz, Lille, Marseille, Berlin, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Vienna, Salzburg, Rome, Bologna, Ravenna, Fermo, Udine, Stockholm, Viitasaari, Poznan, Tallin, Bucharest, Montreal, Waterloo, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Columbus, Osaka, Fukushima, Sapporo, Yamanashi, Yamaguchi, Shanghai, Sydney, Adelaide etc.
A keen interpreter ranging from early keyboard music to contemporary compositions, Forlivesi has been the organist of the Basilica Sanctuary St. Claire of Assisi, a UNESCO site.
He was invited to give recitals in major venues including the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris, the Papal Basilica St. Francis of Assisi, the Cathedrals of Verona, Fermo, and Imola, the Franziskanerkirche of Salzburg, the Peterskirche of Wien, the Kloister Maria Enzersdorf, the Stuttgart Organ Festival, the Sacred Music Festival of Reggio-Emilia, the Organ Festivals of Marche Region, and the Cucinelli Foundation Organ Series in Perugia etc. He extensively toured in Japan playing in Azuchi, Osaka, Kyoto, Kusatsu and Yamanashi, and he gave a charity recital in Haramachi, a chapel next to the evacuation zone of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant.
Forlivesi received a number of musical and academic awards (Yamaha Music Foundation, EU Commission 2000, Huub Kerstens Choral Prize Gaudeamus, Rohm Music Foundation, Asahi, Fulbright, Japanese Ministry of Culture, Danish Rectors` Conference, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs etc.) and commissions (Gran Teatro La Fenice, Kyoto Art Center, Finnish National Theatre, Monte dei Paschi Siena, Wienerberger, Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Residences Nouvelles, International Composers Forum etc.) throughout four continents, contributing significantly to his success as one of the most interesting and appreciated artists of his generation.
In addition to his fertile compositional output Forlivesi is the author CDs, and of academic publications which are available in several languages.
He has two sons with his wife, the Japanese traditional dancer Sayuri Uno (stage name Yusa Furusawa) a former employee of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, with whom he has collaborated on dance music productions in Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and USA.
