PROJECTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2012

-August 5, 2012, at 7pm: the group UrbanArias will perform my mini-opera buffa, "Blind Date With Alter Egos", with other mini-operas at the Iota Club in Arlington, Virginia. http://www.urbanarias.org/performances/blinddates

-July, 2012: My works "Melma Calma" (piccolo, pf) & "Until A Petal Hit The Ground" (fl, pf) just published in Italy. For details, see http://www.utorpheus.com/products_new.php

-Friday, June 22 at 8pm, Renée Weiler Concert Hall-Greenwich House, NYCWorld premiere of my piece "The Sorrow of The Soul", written especially for The Ambrosia Trio at a fund-raiser and benefit concert for the Institute of Core Energetics.

-The Emerald Trio (flute, violin and cello) premiered "Le Pressioni del Passato" at Trinity-Wall Street Church in NYC, January 2012..
See the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyNgCwSmj0c

2011

-The Italian Cultural Institute of New York has hired Davide to teach a three-month course on the history of Italian opera. It is an honor and a privilege to collaborate with such a prestigious institution, so prominent in the cultural life of New York.

-"Blind Date for Alter Egos" was just performed at Carnegie-Weill Hall by The Remarkable Theater Brigade on Friday, November 4, 2011 as part of their Opera Shorts program.

-Davide just completed "Simmetrie di Paradiso", a work for soprano sax and piano written for Rome-based saxophonist Pierpaolo Iacopini. The piece will be premiered during the next season and will also be included in Maestro Iacopini's next CD.

-Italian clarinet player Guido Arbonelli is currently touring Italy performing "Degli Eroici Furori" the piece for clarinet and piano that Davide wrote for him last summer. The piece has already been performed several times in Rome, Sicily, Sondrio and other places and received unanimous praise from audiences everywhere.

-A new piece for piano trio (violin, cello and piano) is in the works. The title of the work is "The Sorrow of the Soul" and will be written for the New York-based Ambrosia Trio. Davide has had an ongoing collaboration with the Ambrosia Trio since the mid-Nineties, when the group premiered "Future Fears" his first piano trio.

-"Flexible Desires", a piece for solo piano commissioned by Joanne Chang with funding provided by the City University of New York. The work was premiered on March 12, 2011 at the Tenri Institute, NY. Several additional performances to follow in the NY area and in China.

See the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzpm6sTI03M

2010

-"Inner Landscapes", commissioned by pianist Adam Marks through private donors and written for him, was premiered at the CoreEnergetics benefit concert on Saturday, December 4, 2010 at 8:00pm at the Renee Weiler Recital Hall-Greenwich House in New York City. "Inner Landscapes" is scored for a vocalizing pianist. The text was excerpted and assembled by the composer from a wide variety of sources which through the years have been important to him, including Eva Pierrakos, The Kaddish, The Book of Job, A Course in Miracles, St. Francis' Song of Creatures and various Tantric texts.

The work is divided into four movements, entitled respectively "The Propulsion of Purpose", "Dust from the Rubble of Dreams", "Tantric Fire", and "The Mechanism of Miracles", and depict the emotions of a man's life. Musically, a wide variety of styles and compositional techniques coexist, with lyrical and expressive moments characterized by late-Romantic harmonies, highly virtuosic dissonant passages, and moving, ethereal sections. The second movement also features graphic notation, in which the performer is asked to improvise on the basis of the graphic symbols in the score. Musical materials that have shaped the composer's life since his early childhood emerge hauntingly to the surface of the music, like relics from the past; the composer calls them in Italian “fantasmi della memoria" (ghosts of memory).

-"Degli Eroici Furori" is the title of the work for clarinet and piano that Davide has just completed. The piece was written for Guido Arbonelli, the Italian clarinet virtuoso and long-time champion of Davide's music. The piece is to be premiered during Guido's upcoming tour of Argentina.

-Davide is writing a piece for solo flugelhorn, which is n. 11 in his ongoing series "The Book of Friends", a series of musical portraits of his friends. The piece is written for Italian trumpet player Ivano Ascari and will be recorded in an upcoming CD.

-Percussionist James Preiss has commissioned Davide to compose a work for violin and timpani for violinist Elisabeth Young and her husband, timpanist Jeremy Levine. Davide and Jeremy's collaboration started years ago, when Jeremy was still a student at Mannes Conservatory, where the percussion ensemble played several of Davide's works. This work, the title of which is "Moon-Soul" was conceived by James as a wedding gift for Elisabeth and Jeremy. The premiere will be scheduled during the summer.


2009

-Renowned pianist Adam Marks commissioned Davide to write a substantial piece for solo piano with vocalization. The work, to be called "Inner Landscapes" is cast in four movements ("The Propulsion of Purpose", "Dust from the Rubble of Dreams", "Tantric Fires", "The Mechanism of Miracles") and will be about 20 minutes long. The project is financed through the generosity of individual donors. Donations are tax-deductible and accepted through the fiscal sponsorship of Fractured Atlas. For more information, write to Davide at DavideZannoni@aol.com

-Davide Zannoni's music was selected by visual artist Frances Smokowski as a background for her website (www.chrysalisstudio.com). Each of her galleries features a different work by Davide Zannoni (place the cursor over each gallery to hear musical excerpts).


2008

-Since The New York Times is not talking about it (yet), please allow me tell you that "Drama", the new CD from Tetraktis, one of Italy's most famous percussion ensembles, has been released. In it you will find "Bulking Up", a percussion quartet that I wrote specifically for the ensemble, plus other interesting music by Curcio, Mayer, Mencarelli, Laneri, Cangemi and Annunziata. In case you want to treat yourself (and your loved ones) to some highly unusual percussive sounds, the CD can be ordered by contacting Tetraktis at: info@tetraktis.org

-Davide was recently commissioned by Richard Brode, Minister of Music and organist at St. Matthew-Trinity Lutheran Church (Hoboken, NJ) to write a piece on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the church. The piece, scored for brass quartet, timpani, percussion, and organ, will be premiered on Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 2pm. Davide is thrilled to write music for a spiritual setting and is very excited to collaborate with the talented musicians that play at St. Matthew-Trinity. This commission is also an opportunity to translate into music some of the spiritual work that he has been doing in the past few years. http://www.stmatthewtrinity.org/welcome/events.html

-April: Davide was composer-in-residence with the Santa Cruz Chamber Players on the occasion of the West Coast premiere of "Glimmers of Acceptance" for string trio. He coached rehearsals and interacted with the local community about his music and new music in general.


2007

-Another commission for The Manhattan Choral Ensemble's Christmas concert, which this year featured Italian Christmas music. Davide was asked by Thomas Cunningham, MCE's director, to write a version for SATB of the famous Italian carol "Tu scendi dalle stelle".

-Davide just completed writing the music for a wedding. Joanna Goldstein, flute player of the award-winning, Boston-based wind quintet Vento Chiaro and long-time champion of Davide's music, is getting married in the fall. She asked Davide to compose the music for the ceremony. The three pieces (Processional, Interlude, Recessional), in a playful vein, are scored for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, and Bassoon, that is the quintet (obviously minus the flute).

-Davide was invited to be composer in residence at the First International Piccolo Symposium, which was organized by Christine Beard and took place at the University of Nebraska, in Omaha. Internationally-renowned piccolo specialist Nicola Mazzanti was a teacher at the symposium, and in his faculty concert he premiered Davide's "Melma Calma", the work he commissioned and recorded.

-Another project was "Citadel of Softness", a choral work based on a poem by Christina Rossetti. This was a commission from the Manhattan Choral Ensemble (Thomas Commingham, conductor). This commission was part of the Manhattan Choral Ensemble project called "New Music for New York", and was premiered in June.

-Davide's exciting project is a work called "Archers of Solitude" and it is scored for soprano, clarinet, marimba and large percussion ensemble. The piece is a setting of Wendell Berry's beautiful and moving poems and lasts 20 minutes. Each poem, scored for the trio, is preceded by a prelude for the percussion ensemble, setting the emotional and timbral atmosphere for the text. The piece was commissioned by James Preiss, who teaches percussion at Mannes, with the generous financial backing of private donors. It was written for Tonal Center Trio and the Mannes Percussion Ensemble.


2006

- Brian Fronzaglia, a percussionist based in Kansas, commissioned Davide to write a solo for marimba, which will further expand his already notable marimba catalog. The title of the new work is "Balletti di Bronzo" and will be premiered in the spring of 2007. Incidentally, Brian was the soloist in the world premiere of the chamber version of "Concertino dell'Incenso" for marimba and string orchestra, which took place at Michigan State University a few years ago.

- Negotiations are under way to secure funding for Davide's next collaboration, a substantial work for piano solo to be written for New York-based pianist Adam Marks. Adam and Davide have great admiration for each other and are thrilled at this opportunity to work together.

- Davide was commissioned by Leesa Levy to write a piece for soprano and vibraphone, based on texts by Christina Rossetti.

- Davide was commissioned by the University of Florence Choir to write a short piece for SATB. The result was "Astro Morente", set to one of his poems in Italian.

- Stefan Milenkovich commissioned Davide to write "Eterni Ritorni" for solo violin. The piece is loosely based on the Bach sarabandes for solo violin and has a virtuosic character, weaving in and out of tonality.

- Nicola Mazzanti, who last year commissioned "Melma Calma", for piccolo and piano, has recorded it for his new CD. You can purchase it at: http://cdbaby.com/cd/mazzanti2


2005

- A commission from The Jade String Trio to write a work based on a Chinese folk tune, to be recorded in their debut CD. The piece, called "Glimmers of Acceptance", was recently completed and was commissioned thanks to the generous contributions of the following donors: Marie Alpert, Martin Bressler, Caterina Constantino, Judy Gold, Tatjana Kalinin, Neal Levy, Warren Moe, Howard Orlin, Shira Rozan, Carl Schachter, Daniel Weiss.

- A new work, for flute violin and piano, entitled "Le Pressioni del Passato" (The Pressure of the Past) was also recently commissioned by The Trio Albatros Ensemble, based in Milan, Italy.