Livio Ventura
InterContinental Music Awards Winner
2024 – Best of Pangea | Classical
Livio Ventura (b. 1963) studied piano at the music conservatory in Madrid (1976-80) where he was awarded 1st piano prize for 3 consecutive years. He continued his piano studies at the Santa Cecilia Music Conservatory in Rome (1981-1982). In 1983, Livio enrolled as a music composition student at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) in Johannesburg and completed first his Bachelor of Music with Honours and subsequently his Master of Music.
Livio was the first composition student to complete a composition degree using electronic instruments such as the New England Digital Synclavier II. He collaborated extensively with the WITS Drama and Film department with original compositions for theatre plays – As you like it by Shakespeare and Women of Troy by Euripides – and composed the soundtrack for “National Madness”, a film written and directed by the students of the drama school.
In 1987, he received a commission from the South African Music Guild (SAMG) and in 1988, his composition De Rerum Musicalis – for orchestra, voce recitante, magnetic tape and audio effects – received first prize at the Total Music Collection Competition.
Candlelight (1989) – composed for guitar and string orchestra – recorded by the South African guitarist Tessa Ziegler was released with a pop arrangement in her CD “Another side of me”, distributed by EMI.
In 1989, Livio leveraged his electronic instruments programming skills and started a career in Information Technology.
Mpumalanga (2007) a collection of musical impressions composed for a pierrot lunaire ensemble during a family trip to South Africa was premiered in 2010 in Italy.
Livio had the privilege to conduct the premiere of Haiku for Orchestra (2012) at his orchestra conducting graduation recital at the Latina Conservatory.
The performance of Blyde River Canyon (2014) for flute and harp took place in Madrid at the Jose Cubiles auditorium of the Real Conservatorio de Musica.
Juxtapositions (2016) – a multi-media (audio-video-dance) composition – was premiered at the “Two lands, one voice” concert held in Rome in the auditorium of the “Santa Cecilia” Conservatory of Music in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine.
The Orchestra da Camera Roma Classica premiered Dialogando serenamente per archi (2017) at the Teatro dei Ginnasi in Rome.
In March 2018, Livio submitted a film orchestra rescore of 18 consecutive minutes from Joseph Kosinski’s film Oblivion towards the Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music in Rome Film music master degree.
Making sense of time, released January 2023 for my 60th birthday is a subjective and immersive process that measures the perception of the duration of the indefinite while the musical experience unfolds.
Herewith a brief description of the two compositions, included in Making sense of time, that are in the running for the Pangea geo region of the InterContinental Music Awards classical category of contemporary composition:
1. Elisions for piano – An effervescent take on a catchy melody, co-composed with my son Benjamin
2. Landscape for piano – An evocative piece where a spinning top whirls romantically in the twilight
Making sense of time is a collection of original compositions inspired by my lifelong travels around the world, composed using my own musical idiom that combines melodies, rhythms and ostinato patterns with a sprinkling of jazz.