Biography

Nicola Campogrande, born in Turin, Italy, in 1969, is today regarded as one of the most important Italian composers.

His music has been published exclusively by Breitkopf & Härtel since 2017.

After graduating from the conservatories of Milan and Paris, he began to develop an original personal style, combining past and present traditions in a fascinating new way. His scores have been performed by musicians such as Gauthier Capuçon, Riccardo Chailly, Lilya Zilberstein, Mario Brunello, Roberto Abbado, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, the Lithuanian National Orchestra, the Fine Arts Quartet or the Quartetto del Teatro alla Scala, who have appreciated the freshness and vitality of his music and his ability to touch the hearts of the listeners.

A musical theatre enthusiast, he wrote the operas De bello gallico, #Folon, Opera italiana, La notte di San Nicola, I due usignoli, Macchinario, Lego, Alianti.

He also developed a rich orchestral and chamber catalogue.

Among his most appreciated scores there are the Sinfonia n. 2 “Un mondo nuovo”, the Concerto for audience and orchestra, R (A portrait for piano and orchestra), Concerto allegro for guitar and orchestra, Nudo and Preludi da viaggio, for piano, Cinque modi per aprire un concerto, for orchestra, Urban gardens for piano and chamber orchestra, the Ink-jet preludes for guitar, Forme di felicità, for violin and piano, the Dances of Laughter and Forgetting for accordion and piano.

His music has been recorded on more that 35 cds (from DECCA to independent labels) and it is performed frequently in the most prominent halls of many countries, suc as the Royal Albert Hall and the Wigmore Hall in London, the Teatro alla Scala, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, the Werner Hall in Cincinnati, the Philharmonie in Paris, the Auditorium Santa Cecilia-Parco della Musica in Rome, the Rudolfinum in Prague.

The artistic director of the MITO SettembreMusica festival from 2016 to 2023, Campogrande has also been a presenter on Italian RAI Radio3 and he produced the television program “Contrappunti” on the Classica HD channel. He currently writes for the cultural pages of the newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.

He has been a member of the International Music Commission of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat, where he’s now Advisor.

His book Occhio alle orecchie. Come ascoltare musica classica e vivere felici (2015) reached six editions and then was published in paperbacks as well. A third edition has already be made also for  100 brani di musica classica da ascoltare una volta nella vita (2018). His last books are Viaggio al centro dell’orchestra. La vita segreta della musica classica tra direttpri e solisti, prove e strumenti, disastri e colpi di genio (2023), Capire la musica classica ragionando da compositori (2020; then in paperbacks) and Le partiture sono ricette di cucina. Venti dischi che stanno riscrivendo la storia della musica (2020). In 2022 he published also the schoolbook Prima la musica!.

Caricature by Clemens Falkenstein