Valerio Sannicandro was born in Italy, but relatively soon he moved to Germany where he turned his attention more and more to contemporary music: he studied composition in Cologne with York Höller (dissertation: “Komposition als semiotischer Prozess”), in Frankfurt with Hans Zender and conducting with Peter Eötvös.
Appearances as conductor in Cologne (Triennale Köln, WDR-Orchestra), Darmstadt (Ferienkurse), Spain (Festival de Canaria) and Avignon (Centre Acanthes), conducting works by Karlheinz Stockhausen (first performance of “Hoch-Zeiten”) Varese, Carter, Grisey, Fedele and Donatoni, among others.
Winner of several composition competitions in Germany (among others the MUSICA VIVA, München in 2002 and 2010) and Italy, as well as the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis 2000 of the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. Invited from CULTURES FRANCE as Artist in Residence at Villa Kujoyama (Kyoto).
He has been invited for conferences and workshops in Prague (Music Academy), Berlin (Humboldt-Universität) and in 2002 has been teacher during the Darmstädter Ferienkurse.
Sannicandro together with Eötvös (left) and Richard (right)
His compositions have been performed among others by Salome Kammer, Peter Veale, Marco Blaauw, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Ensemble Recherche, Kroumata, AlterEgo, Musikfabrik NRW, conducted by Peter Eötvös, Peter Hirsch, Jonathan Stockhammer, Evan Christ, Pierre-André Valade and Arturo Tamayo. They have been recorded and broadcasted by the BR, HR, MDR, WDR, Radio France and RAI and performed in all Europe, Japan, USA and Canada.
He received commissions among others from Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Bayerische Staatsoper, Donaueschinger Musiktage, IRCAM, Biennale di Venezia. His work and his research, mainly on the aspect of spatialisation, has been supported by the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung of SWR for the year 2003 as well as by IRCAM, where he worked in a research group on spatialisation as “compositeur associé”.
Valerio Sannicandro and Pierre André Valade
Latest projects include “Ius Lucis” (2006/2007) for two ensembles in two music halls (commissioned by IRCAM), and “Forces Motrices” a large scale work for orchestra and live-electronics. A new CD (“chamber music” TLS 105) conducted by the author was released by TELOS records.
Selected for the Rostrum of Composers 2006, during the season 2008-2009 he has been composer in residence at Staatstheater Cottbus, and from 2008 Composer in Residence at ZKM Karlsruhe (Germany) where two new CDs for WERGO have been produced. From 2008 to 2010 he has been “composer in residence” and in charge as curator of a new music project of the Philharmonisches Orchester Cottbus (Germany).
His works are published by Edizioni Suvini-Zerboni (Milan).

http://www.valeriosannicandro.eu/biography