Francesco Cilluffo (born in Turin, Italy, January 1979) is an Italian composer and conductor.
He graduated in Composition and Conducting with Gilberto Bosco from the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Turin after having completed a Music Degree from the University of Turin with a thesis about Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd. In 2003 he moved to London, where he completed a PhD in Composition at the King’s College London,[1] after having been awarded a Master in Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He also held the position of a Composition and Conducting fellow for the Academic Year 2004-2005.[2] Particularly important for his development as a composer were the sessions with Alexander Goehr in Cambridge and meeting Tobias Picker, whose opera Emmeline was influential in his determination to become an operatic composer. His works have been performed in Italy, England, Austria, Russia, United States and Hong Kong.
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Cilluffo’s most recent instrumental music includes Drash for orchestra (commissioned and premiered by the Chicago Arts Orchestra), Il barone rampante after Italo Calvino’s famous book, commissioned by the RAI National Symphony Orchestra featuring actress Sonia Bergamasco,[3] the piano trios This island’s mine and Turning to Turner (commissioned by the Trio Debussy[4]) and the string symphony Castelli di Rabbia (after Alessandro Baricco’s novel), performed as part of the 2006 Winter Olympics celebrations.[5] His most performed chamber works include A Sonata Play for cello and piano and Il sistema periodico for piano solo (based on the book by Primo Levi).
Cilluffo enjoys particular success working with voices. His cantata for the 150th anniversary of the Italian unification, Voci di tenebra azzurra (for chorus, mezzosoprano and orchestra), was premiered at the 2011 Festival della Valle d'Itria to much critical acclaim. His next song cycle for soprano and string orchestra, The Land to Life again, will be premiered at the Festival Incontri in Terra di Siena in 2012. His choral piece Carmen Artemisiae, based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, will also be premiered in 2012. Among his recent vocal cycles are also Death in Florence (commissioned by the London Song Festival)[6] and Emily Dickinson: a Song Cycle, which was awarded the Tracey Chawell Memorial Prize in London. He was also awarded the East-West Competition for The Other Boat, commissioned by the Elektra Ensemble in Amsterdam.
Cilluffo has distinguished himself as a conductor in United Kingdom and Europe in venues such as the Barbican Centre, Sadler's Wells Theatre and City of London Festival, Scottish Opera, Municipal Theatre of Santiago (Chile), Byblos International Festival, Teatro Carignano and Teatro Nuovo in Turin. He has worked as assistant conductor in the United States (Lyric Opera of Chicago and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra) and Europe (Gewandhaus, Leipzig, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg, and Teatro La Fenice, Venice). He has also attended master classes with conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas (with the London Symphony Orchestra), Iván Fischer (Budapest Festival Orchestra) and Gianluigi Gelmetti (Accademia Musicale Chigiana). Among his recent conducting engagements are Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde at the Festival della Valle d'Itria, a tour of concerts with the Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago in Chile (featuring music by Rossini, Haydn and Mendelssohn), Marco Tutino’s opera The Servant at the Teatro Rossini in Lugo and Mozart’s Requiem (edited by Robert D. Levin) with the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino in Turin. He also conducted Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Byblos International Festival, a Verdi Gala with the Scottish Opera in Glasgow, a concert for the Italian Cultural Institute of Beirut with the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra,[11] Luigi Cherubini’s Requiem in C minor with the orchestra and chorus of the Accademia Stefano Tempia in Turin[12] and an all-Handel concert with the same company.