1. Research interests

• Study of historic piano performance (especially through instructive editions)

• Music in Reformation and Counter-Reformation

• Theology of music performance and interpretation

• Bach Reception (especially in Italy)

• Mozart’s Piano Concertos

 

2. Degrees

• MA in Systematic and Philosophical Theology, with distinction (University of Nottingham, 2016)

  • Dissertation: “Mit Harfen und mit Zimbeln schon: Bach’s Cantata BWV 140 as a case-study for a theological interpretation of music”. Supervisor: R. Bell

• PhD in Music Performance Practice (University of Birmingham, 2012)

  • Thesis: “Instructive editions of Bach’s Wohltemperirtes Klavier: an Italian perspective”. Supervisor: K. Hamilton

• Master’s (MSPT) in History of the Theological Thought, with distinction (University of Rome, Tor Vergata, 2008)

• Laurea Specialistica (MPhil) in Musicology, with distinction (University of Venice, 2006)

  • Thesis: “Das klinget so herrlich – metric structures in the themes of Mozart’s Piano Concertos”. Supervisor: G. Morelli

• Master’s (MMUS) in Music of the Twentieth Century (University of Rome, Tor Vergata, 2004)

• Master’s Diploma in Piano, with distinction (Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, 2003)

• Diploma in Piano, with distinction and honours (Conservatory of Turin, 1999)

Private piano studies with Ilonka Deckers, Emmy Henz, Paul Badura Skoda, Konstantin Bogino

Master classes with A. Lonquich, A. Ciccolini, C. Zacharias, L. Fleisher, M. Bilson, S. Kovacevich

 

3. Publications

3.1 Books

• Reforming Music: Music and the religious Reformations of the sixteenth century (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017); Prefaces by Jeremy Begbie and James MacMillan. Winner of the 2018 RefoRC Book Award; Finalist of the Alberigo Award 2018/9

• Through Music to Truth. Music and theology in dialogue with Italian culture (Turin: Effatà, 2016).

• Per Sorella Musica: San Francesco, il Cantico delle Creature e la Musica del Novecento (Turin: Effatà, 2009; 20142).

• Logos e musica: Ascoltare Cristo nel Bello dei suoni (Turin: Effatà, 2009; 20142).

• Musica, maschere e viandanti: Figure dello spirito romantico in Schubert e Schumann (Turin: Effatà, 2008); Preface by Gianfranco Ravasi; with CD (Schubert’s Sonata D959 and Schumann’s Carnaval) in Chiara Bertoglio’s performance.

• Voi suonate, amici cari: La musica di Mozart tra palcoscenico e tastiera (Turin: Marco Valerio, 2005); Preface by Paul Badura Skoda.
   

3.2. Articles

• “Sonorità di parola e di versificazione, residue o eminenti, nei Concerti per pianoforte di Mozart”, AAA-TAC, 3/2006: 31-44.

• “Non sappia una mano: Tracce di istruzioni per dirigere l’orchestra dal piano presenti nei testi dei Concerti di Mozart”, Atti della Classe di Scienze Morali Lettere ed Arti, 165, I-II/2007: 193-252.

• “Giya Kancheli’s Exil: the Spirituality of Motifs”, British Postgraduate Musicology, n. 9/2008 (http://bit.ly/2rxTAgT).

• “Verità e Poesia: Dialettica dell’Io nella musica di Schumann e Nietzsche”, Divus Thomas, 50 (May-August 2008): 161-200

• “Sì bella e perduta: gli esuli istriani ed il canto del Va’, Pensiero”, Quaderni del Centro di Ricerche Storiche di Rovigno, n. XIX/2008: 389-538.

• “Non omnis moriar: la teologia dei Quadri da un’esposizione di Modest Mussorgskij”, Reportata, 15.07.2008 (http://bit.ly/2oAPkwL).

• “Cristo, Tamino e Beethoven. Per una lettura cristologica del Cristo sul Monte degli Ulivi”, Archivio Teologico Torinese, 1/2009: 75-97.

• “Verdi’s Va’, Pensiero is our own song: An anthropological introduction to the world of Istrian exiles”, “TRANS”, 2009 (http://bit.ly/2rxKOj3).

• “Alfred Schnittkes Sonnengesang zwischen Tradition und Innovation”, in Amrei Flechsig and Christian Storch, eds., Alfred Schnittke. Analyse – Interpretation – Rezeption (Hildesheim, Zurich, New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2010):109-126.

• “Sì bella e perduta. Gli esuli istriani, fiumani e dalmati e il canto del Va’, pensiero”, Musica e Storia, 3/2007: 661-678.

• “Accordo perfetto: la Trinità nella musica, la musica nella Trinità”, Reportata, May 2011 (http://bit.ly/2s0yRD0).

• “A Perfect Chord: Trinity in music, music in the Trinity”, Religions 4 (2013), no. 4: 485-501.

• “Italian Instructive Editions of the Well-Tempered Clavier: A Useful Resource for Performance Practice Studies”, Understanding Bach, 9 (2014): 49-74 (http://bit.ly/2rigZT7).

• “Sigillo sul cuore e lampada accesa. Una lettura teologica della Cantata BWV 140 di Bach”, Archivio Teologico Torinese, 1/2014: 213-219.

• “La polifonia della comunione nella Commedia di Dante”, Archivio Teologico Torinese, 1/2015,: 107-126.

• “Trinitarian Perspectives in Barth and von Balthasar”, Reportata, December 2015 (http://bit.ly/2qHgeQH).

•  “Four Hands and Four Paws: Sibelius, Busoni and Lesko the Dog”, Trio, 1/2016: 6-33 (http://bit.ly/2s0N5UJ).

• “Le Kinderszenen di Schumann: poesia, natura, infanzia”, Logoi, II/6/2016: 77-90 (http://bit.ly/2fKoOxa).

• “The Untimely Timeliness of Fides et ratio”, Logoi, II/7/2017: 337-354 (http://bit.ly/2qMZA1x).

•  “Dissonant Harmonies: Tolkien’s musical theodicy”, Tolkien Studies, vol. 15 (2018): 93-114 (doi:10.1353/tks.2018.0007)

• “The Mother, the Sinners, and the Cross: Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Bach’s Tilge, Höchster”, Pro Ecclesia 27, no. 4 (Fall 2018), pp. 451-482, feature article (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/106385121802700410)

• “Valorizzazione del patrimonio storico musicale della Chiesa. Criteri ed esperienze”, in C. A. Moreira Azevedo and R. Rouse (eds.), Musica e Chiesa. Culto e cultura a 50 anni dalla ‘Musicam sacram’ (Canterano: Aracne, 2017): 145-152.

• “Cats, bulls and donkeys: Bernardino Cirillo on 16th-century church music”, Early Music 45/4 (30 December 2017): 559-572, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/cax081 .

• “La polifonia della salvezza: musica e giustificazione nell’anniversario della Riforma”, Divus Thomas 121 (May-August 2018): 162-186.

• “Biagio Rossetto: Libellus de rudimentis musices”, in Luisa Zanoncelli (ed.), Musico Perfetto. Gioseffo Zarlino 1517-1590. La teoria musicale a stampa nel Cinquecento (Venice: Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi, 2018): 144-148.

• “Dante, Tolkien e la musica delle sfere”, in Giampaolo Canzonieri et al. (eds.), Tolkien e i classici II (Rome: Eterea, 2018): 55-67; English translation, “Dante, Tolkien and the Supreme Harmony”, in Giampaolo Canzonieri et al. (eds.), Tolkien and the Classics (Zürich and Jena: Walking Tree Publishers, 2019): 83-96.

• “Interpreting Musical Holy Texts”, in K. Fitschen, M. Schröter, C. Spehr, E.-J. Waschke (eds.), Kulturelle Wirkungen der Reformation / Cultural Impact of the Reformation, Leucorea-Studien zur Geschichte der Reformation und der Lutherischen Orthodoxie vol. 3 (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2019): 327-336.

• “Virtuous or Virtuoso? The Reformations of Music in the Sixteenth Century”, in Harald Rise (ed.), Lutherske Perspektiver på liturgisk Musikk (Oslo: Novus Forlag, 2019): 89-114.

• "Nearly Unplayable: Giuseppe Martucci’s interpretations of Bach’s Orchestral Suites", Musica/Realtà (March 2019): 123-158.

• “Busoni e Sibelius un’amicizia in musica”, in A. Bini, F. Colusso and F. Tammaro (eds.), Sibelius e l’Italia. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi interdisciplinari (Roma, 2015) (Rome: Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia, 2019): 117-218.

• “Polyphony, collective improvisation and the gift of Creation”, in J. Eilmann and F. Schneidewind (eds.), Music in Tolkien’s work and beyond (Zurich and Jena: Walking Tree Publishers, 2019): 3-28.

• “High Scores: The Notation of Music, Time and the Eternal Present”, Logoi.ph, V/14 (2019): 59-144 (http://bit.ly/logoi2019).

• “Translating Bach: Understanding Bach piano performance through Lipiński’s instructive edition”, in S. Paczkowski et al. (eds.), Conference proceedings for the International Chopinological Conference 2017 (“Baroque traditions in the music of the Romantics during the first half of the nineteenth century” – Warsaw, Sept. 1-3 2017) (Warsaw: Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina, 2019): 343-369.

• “From Bach’s violin to Italian pianos: the Sei Solo in the Italian Piano Transcriptions”, in Michael Maul and Alberto Nones (eds.), Forms of Performance. From J. S. Bach to M. Alunno (1972-) (Wilmington DE: Vernon Press, 2020): 17-24 (http://www.vernonpress.com/book/883​)

• “Sacred Music and Interpretation”, in Carlos Alberto Moreira Azevedo e Richard Rouse (a cura di), Chiesa, Musica e Interpreti. Un dialogo necessario (Atti del Convegno, Roma 7-9 novembre 2019) (Roma: Aracne Editrice, 2020): 19-30.

• "'Sopra le bellissime bella'. Due sacerdoti del Cinquecento e la Riforma della musica", in Bruniana & Campanelliana XXVI (2020/1): 47-62.

• "Polifonia, armonia e comunione: dal canto della Trinità alla convivenza sociale", in Fausto Gianfreda (ed.), Lo spirito della musica (Villa Verucchio: Pazzini, 2020): 45-74.

• Communication: “Lutheran Music Culture”, Eighteenth-Century Music vol. 15/2 (September 2018): 271-273, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1478570618000192.

• Lemmas: “Lent. Music”; “Kingdom/Kingship of God. Music”; “Liszt, Franz”; “Liturgical Year. Music”; “Liturgy. Christianity. Music”; “Liturgical books. Christianity. Music”; "Mary. Music"; "Mary. Nativity of. Music"; "Nativity. Music" for the EBR (Encyclopedia of the Bible and of its Reception, De Gruyter): forthcoming.

• Prefaces for Loeffler’s Canticle of the Sun and for Piano Concertos by Jiri Antonin Benda, Carl Heinrich Graun, Joseph Haydn, Emil von Sauer (I and II Piano Concerto), Franz Xaver Scharwenka, Bernhard Scholz, Bernhard Stavenhagen, Anton Urspruch, for MusikProduktion Jürgen Höflich (www.musikmph.de).

• Reviews

  • “Neal Da Costa, Off The Record, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012”, The Pianola Journal 23/2013: 47-49;

  • “Laurence Wuidar, Fuga Satanae. Musique et démonologie à l’aube des temps modernes”, Bruniana & Campanelliana XXV/2 (2019): 601-602.

• Critical Editions

  • ​Johann Sebastian Bach / Arrigo Boito: Trascrizione d’una Partita di G. S. Bach. Critical Edition (Osaka: Da Vinci Publishing, 2019).

​

3.3. Recent presentations at conferences

• 4-6/12/2019, University of Macerata, Conference "Barlumi di cose più alte, più profonde o più oscure della sua superficie", "Polifonia improvvisata e il dono della Creazione nel Silmarillion di Tolkien"

• 7-9/11/19, Rome (Vatican), Conference "Chiesa e interpreti: un dialogo necessario": "Musica sacra e interpretazione" (keynote)

• 20-22/9/19, Dresden, Symposium Bach at the Dawn of 2020: "Quark's Jingle: Reception of Bach's Air in Italy"

• 29-30/6/19, Montecassiano, Music, Communication and Performance: "Italian Piano Transcriptions of Bach's Sei Solo"

• 19-21/10/18, Bolzano, Convegno annuale della SidM: “Martucci interprete bachiano: le trascrizioni per pianoforte e la divulgazione.”

• 4-6/9/18, Vilnius, Doctors in Performance: Recital: “The Piano as a Baroque Orchestra: Martucci’s Transcription of Bach’s Orchestral Suites”

• 10-14/7/18, Università di Cremona, International Biennial Baroque Music Conference: “The Reception of Bach in Fin-de-siècle Italy”

• 1-3/6/18, Accademia Filarmonica, Verona - The Soundscape of the Venetian Terraferma in the Early Modern Era: "Resounding Holiness: Music and Church Reform in Biagio Rossetto’s Verona"

• 7/3/18, EuARe, Bologna - Annual Conference 2018: "Music editions as interpretation: confessional traditions and the “holy texts” 

• 31/10/17, Fondazione Levi, Venice - “Luther and Music” – Study day: “La musica e le riforme del Cinquecento” (Keynote speaker)

• 20-22/10/17, Società Italiana di Musicologia - Congresso annuale della SIDM - “Riformare la Chiesa partendo dalla musica: due sacerdoti del Cinquecento nel clima pretridentino”

• 11-14/10/17, Catholic University Leuven (BE) - LEST XI: “Holy music for holy deeds: Bernardino Cirillo and the Reformation of Music”

• 28-29/9/17, Trondheim - Mikkelmaskonferensen: “Virtuous or virtuoso? The Reformation of Music in the Sixteenth century” (Invited speaker)

• 14-16/9/17, Uppsala - Lutheran Music Culture: “Beyond ‘Church-dividing’ differences: Music and new ecumenical perspectives on justification”

• 1-3/9/17, The Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Warsaw - Baroque traditions in the music of the Romantics during the first half of the nineteenth century: “Translating Bach: Understanding Bach piano performance through Lipinski instructive editions” (Invited speaker)

• 7-11/8/17, LEUCOREA Wittenberg - Cultural Impact of the Reformation: “Interpreting musical ‘holy texts’”

• 18-21/7/17, Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford - Christian Congregational Music: “Cats, bulls and donkeys: Bernardino Cirillo on reforming Church music”

• 10-14/7/17, Bach Network UK - Dialogue Meeting 2017: “‘Transposed for piano in the chamber style’: Busoni in 1907–9 on Ten Chorale Preludes by J. S. Bach”

• 4-8-/7/17, Charles University in Prague - MedRen 2017: “Cats, Bulls and Donkeys: An Italian Churchman and the Reformation of Music”

• 10-12/5/17, LEUCOREA Stiftung, Wittenberg - Refo500: “Music, Justification, Communion and Ecumenism, 500 years After Luther”

• 1-3/3/17, Pontifical Council for Culture - Musica e Chiesa. Culto e cultura a 50 anni dalla Musicam Sacram: “Valorizzazione del patrimonio storico musicale della Chiesa: criteri ed esperienze”

• 3-4/10/2016, University of Cardiff - International Symposium on Performance Practice: Issues, Ethics and Approaches: “Bach, Busoni and Beyond: instructive editions and performance practice” (invited speaker)

• 7-8/9/16, Royal Irish Academy of Music - Doctors in Performance: “Spicing up Bach: Busoni on Bach’s Goldberg Variations” (Lecture-Recital).

• 4-6/3/16, Ferenc Liszt Academy Budapest - Virtuosity: An International Symposium: “Between Show and Holiness: Virtuosity in the Reformation Era”

 

3.4. Audio recordings

• “Bach&Italy” vol. I: Works by Bach, Marcello-Bach, Bach-Brahms, Bach-Busoni; Da Vinci Classics, 2018.

  O. Respighi, Toccata for piano and orchestra; F. La Vecchia, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma; Brilliant Classics, 2013.

• F. Schubert, Impromptus op. 90 e 142; Schubert/Liszt, Impromptus; Velut Luna, 2012.

• M. Mussorgskij, A Night on the Bare Mountain; Pictures at an Exhibition; O. Messiaen, Excerpts from Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus; Velut Luna, 2012.

• W. A. Mozart, Piano Concertos KV 453 and 459, A. Arigoni, Italian Philharmonic Orchestra; Panorama, 2006.

 

4. Prizes, Scholarships and Awards (academic only)

2005         “Ignazio Gherbetz” Research Prize

2006-7     Fondazione CRT (www.fondazionecrt.it), “Progetto Alfieri” (Research scholarship)

2008         “Ronald Gregory Prize”, University of Birmingham

2013         “Music&Letters” Grant (for attending the London International Piano Symposium)

2016         Award of the Pontifical Academies for a Young Scholar

2018         RefoRC Book Award

 

5. Teaching

2019-20 Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia settentrionale - Music and the Eucharist: University course (3 ECTS), one-year contract

2019-20, Conservatory of Turin - Text and interpretation: University course of Aesthetics and Philology of music (30 hours)

2018-9, Conservatory of Cuneo - Fixed-term professorship: Professor of piano

2018-9, Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia settentrionale - The figure of Christ in the classical Oratorio: University course (3 ECTS), one-year contract

2018-9, Conservatory of Turin - Text and interpretation: University course of Aesthetics and Philology of music (30 hours)

2018-9, Conservatory of Novara - Fixed-term professorship: Professor of piano (November/December)

2017-8, Conservatory of Novara - History and technology of the piano: University course (18 hours)

2017-8, Conservatory of Turin - Authenticity and authenticism: Master course, 6 hours, for History of Music students

2017-8, Conservatory of Turin - Music and the Reformations of the 16th century: Master course, 4 hours, for History of Music students

2017-8, Conservatory of Novara - Fixed-term professorship: Professor of piano and chamber music, one-year contract

2017-8, Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia settentrionale - When music meets theology: University course (3 ECTS), one-year contract

2007-ongoing, SFD (Studio Filosofico Domenicano), Bologna - Yearly one-week summer courses on interdisciplinary topics: Summer courses

2017, Universidad de Monterrey (Mexico) - XXXVIII Cátedra de Arte Sacro: Lectures and recitals on Dante and music

2016, Conservatory of Perugia - Illness cover: Professor of Piano: Professor of piano for under- and postgraduates

2016, Conservatory of Milan - Illness cover: Professor of Piano: Professor of piano for under- and postgraduates

2014, Conservatory of Lucca - Illness cover: Professor of Chamber Music: Professor of Chamber Music for postgraduates

2013, Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia Meridionale - “Non omnis moriar: Mussorgskij’s Pictures as a Paschal itinerary”: Seminar

2013, Conservatory of Bologna - Illness cover: Professor of Piano: Professor of piano for undergraduates

2013-5, Università di Roma Tor Vergata - Music and the Sacred: Teaching perspectives: MA for postgraduates (60 ECTS): http://bit.ly/2eEyPJK

2012, FTER (Facoltà Teologica dell’Emilia Romagna), Bologna - Using music to teach Religion: University course for postgraduates (3 ECTS)

 

6. Miscellaneous

• Member of the Scientific Committee for the Conference "Bach and Italy" (Turin, November 2020)

• Founder of JSBach.it

• Member of the Scientific Committee for the UNICEF project “Soundz for Children” (2018)

• Vice-President of the Coro Maghini, Turin (www.coromaghini.it), 2018 - ongoing

• Member of the Artistic Board of the International Festival “BackTOBach” (Turin, 2017 - ongoing)

• Membership of Professional bodies: Ordine dei Giornalisti (Pubblicista), Italy (since 2014, ongoing)

• Project designer for the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino (www.fondazionecrt.it): “Progetto Diderot” (educational project for schools on classical music), 2006 and 2007

• Articles on “La voce del popolo” (www.lavocedeltempo.it), “Avvenire” (www.avvenire.it), Mercatornet (www.mercatornet.org), “Vino Nuovo” (www.vinonuovo.it) and “Chi cercate?” (www.chicercate.net).

• Non-specialist books: “La speranza non fa rumore” (Milan: Edizioni Paoline, 2011); “I colori della misericordia” (Turin: Effatà, 2016).

• Founder of the musicians’ charity “Portare la Musica”, organising and realising free concerts for disabled, elderly or ill people (since 2003)