Riccardo Riccardi

Riccardo Riccardi was born in 1954 in Rimini (Italy) where he studied piano with Guido Zangheri. He attended high school at the Liceo Classico Giulio Cesare. His Italian teacher was Carlo Alberto Balducci, who had also been the teacher of Federico Fellini. In 1972 he moved to Florence to study composition at the Cherubini Conservatory of Music, initially with Pier Luigi Zangelmi and then with Carlo Prosperi. He concurrently studied piano with Franco Scala privately until graduating in 1976 at the Cherubini Conservatory. From 1977 to 1980 he spent his summers in Germany and, in 1980, worked as music coach at the Youth Festival Meeting in Bayreuth. In 1981 he earned his Doctorate in Architecture with a dissertation entitled “Theories of Harmonic Proportions in the Architectural Treatises of the Renaissance”. In 1982 after having earned his degree in composition he moved to Los Angeles.

In 1984 Riccardo Riccardi was back in Italy. From 1988 to 1991 he hosted radio programs at the Spanish National Radio (RNE) and the Italian National Radio and Television (RAI). Since 1994 he has been invited as a guest speaker and artist in residence to colleges and universities in California, Arizona, Indiana and Maryland.
In 2009, his opera Talk Show received a grant from the Center for Academic Innovation, Indiana, and in 2014 he was the Nancy Unobskey Visiting Artist in Modern and Contemporary Art, at Goucher College (Towson, Maryland).
After holding a position on the faculty of the Cherubini Conservatory in Florence for 24 years (1989-2012) and teaching composition at the Florence Program of New York University (2008-2012), Riccardi currently holds a Chair of Composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome.

Riccardo Riccardi has composed nine operas so far (based on his own libretti, some original and others adapted from early 20th century writers), two theatrical plays with arias and ensembles, two ballets, concertos for violin, piano, accordion, percussion and guitar and other orchestral works. He has also composed a large number of works for chamber ensembles as well as song cycles and vocal compositions.

More info at www.riccardoriccardi.com
 
The "Concerto for violin and orchestra op.10" was composed in 1981/82 and received the Composer's Award at the 21st Sothwestern Youth Music Festival in Los Angeles in 1983. The composition lasts around 16 minutes and is still awaiting its premiere.