Alessandra Pipitone

She obtained her diploma in orchestral conducting, piano and chamber music, completed a two-year specialisation course in concertmaster and piano accompaniment, and graduated in Musicology from the University of Palermo with top marks, honours and a special commendation. During her training, she studied under Maestros Antonino Fogliani, Carmelo Caruso, Fabio Ciulla, Ranieri Schicchi, Salvatore Spanò, Bruno Aprea, Ivo Lipanovic, Waldemir Wojtal, Gisela Herb and Massimiliano Damerini. She has given numerous concerts both as a conductor and as a pianist. She has conducted the Catania Philharmonic Orchestra (G. Bizet’s Carmen), the Orchestra Città di Ferrara (G. Verdi’s Aida), the Sicilian Philharmonic Orchestra (G. Puccini’s Turandot, G. Verdi’s La Traviata, P. Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Mozart’s Requiem K626), the Women’s Orchestra at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa, the Teatro Bibbiena in Mantua, the Teatro Antico in Taormina, the Parchi di Nervi in Genoa, and the Mediaset Studios.

She has performed as a pianist at the Prog_Zentrum in Bern, the Comptoir de la Victorin in Marseille (Grand Vertige Festival), the Sophienkirche and Thomaskirche in Wuppertal (Kultur/Trasse Festival), the Teatro Politeama in Catanzaro, the Teatro Alfieri in Turin, the Teatro Massimo and the Teatro Politeama in Palermo, and the Teatro Eliodoro Sollima in Marsala. She has performed for Rai Uno, Rai 5, Rai Sicilia, the international association for contemporary music Curva Minore, the Werkstatt für Improvisierte Musik Bern, and the Wuppertaler Improvisations Orchester; she has collaborated with Thollem McDonas – with whom she recently released the LP *Omnileliomatic* alongside the Sicilian Improvisers Orchestra, published by Superpang – as well as with Gunda Gottshalk, Silke Eberhard, Frank Gratkowski, Dario Buccino and Alessandro Librio. His repertoire ranges from academic-style music and 20th-century works to the most extreme forms of experimentation, in a continuous search for novel sonic elements and sound explorations of both academic and non-academic origin, often unrelated to traditional notation, encompassing aleatoric music, radical improvisation and graphic notation. He teaches Score Reading at the U. Giordano Conservatoire in Foggia and Theory and Choral Practice at the PAS Academy (Performing Arts School) in Palermo.