was born in Palermo in 1947. He takes pride in being born free and never have been to a music school. He started composing when he was twelve as a self-taught artist, and held his first public concert in 1962. But he considers all his works before 1966 as a developing apprenticeship, after which his personal style began to reveal itself. There is something really special that characterises this music: it leads to a different way of listening, a global emotional realisation—of reality as well as of one’s self. After forty years, the extensive catalogue of Sciarrino’s compositions is still in a phase of surprising creative development. After his classical studies and a few years of university at his home city, he moved to Rome in 1969 and to Milan in 1977. Since 1983, he has lived in Città di Castello, Umbria.
He has composed for the Teatro alla Scala, RAI, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Venice Biennale, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Arena di Verona, Stuttgart Opera, Brussels’ La Monnaie, Frankfurt Opera, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London Symphony Orchestra, and Tokyo Suntory Hall. He has also composed for Schwetzinger Festspiele, Donaueschinger Musiktage, festivals in Witten, Salzburg and New York (Lincoln Center), Wien Modern, Wiener Festwochen, Berliner Festspiele, Holland Festival, Aldeburgh, Festival d’Automne in Paris, Ultima in Oslo. His works were published by Ricordi from 1969 to 2004. Since 2005, RAI TRADE holds exclusive rights to Sciarrino’s works. Sciarrino’s discography, published by top international record labels, numbers over oft-awarded 70 CDs.
As well as being the author of most of his opera librettos, Sciarrino has written a rich variety of articles, essays and texts of various genres, some of which have been collected in Carte da suono (2001). Of particular importance is his interdisciplinary book about musical form, Le figure della musica, da Beethoven a oggi (Ricordi, 1998).
Sciarrino taught at the music academies of Milan (1974–83), Perugia (1983– 87), and Florence (1987–96). He has also taught various specialist courses and masterclasses, including at Città di Castello from 1979 to 2000. From 1978 to 1980, he was Artistic Director of Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, Academy of Fine Arts of Bavaria, and Academy of the Arts in Berlin. Sciarrino has won many awards, including from Prince Pierre de Monaco (2003) and the prestigious Premio Internazionale Feltrinelli (2003). He was also the first winner of the newly created Salzburg Music Prize (2006), an international composition established by the Salzburg Land.
In 2006, Sciarrino’s new opera Da gelo a gelo, coproduced by Schwetzinger Festspiele, Opéra National de Paris, and Grand Théâtre de Genève, was performed to great acclaim. In 2008 La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra performed his 4 Adagi, and 12 Madrigali were premiered in the summer of the same year in a portrait series dedicated to him by Salzburg Festival.
In 2009 his opera La porta della legge was performed in Wuppertal and Mannheim, and in 2010 in New York’s Lincoln Center Festival. His String Quartet no. 8 was premiered by Quartetto Prometeo at the Aldeburgh Festival. His flute concerto Libro notturno delle voci was performed at the Donaueschinger Musiktage and Vienna’s Wien Modern by the SWR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Beat Furrer, with Mario Caroli as soloist.
In 2011 his latest opera Superflumina was performed at the National Theatre in Mannheim, directed by Tito Ceccherini. In 2012 he was judge at the Takemitsu Competition in Tokyo, and his new work Carnaval, commissioned for Pollini Perspectives, was performed at the Lucerne Festival by Maurizio Pollini, the Neue Vocalsolisten and Klangforum Wien. In 2012 the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award was granted to Salvatore Sciarrino “for renewing the possibilities of vocal and instrumental music and for the singularity of his sound materials.”

Major works (since 2000): Il clima dopo Harry Partch for piano and orchestra (1999–2000), Studi per l’intonazione del mare for contralto, four flutes, four saxophones, percussion, 100 flutes and 100 saxophones (2000), Due notturni crudeli for piano (2001), In nomine nominis for eight performers (2001), Macbeth, tre atti senza nome, opera to a libretto by the composer after Shakespeare (2001–2), Altre schegge di canto for clarinet and orchestra (2002), Cavatina e i gridi for string sextet (2002), Due smarrimenti for soprano and eight instruments (2003), Graffito sul mare for trio and orchestra (2003), String Sextet (2003), Quaderno di strada for baritone and instruments (2003), Lohengrin 2 for soloist, instrument and voices (1982–2004), Scena di vento for instruments (2004), Il legno e la parola for marimba and bells (2004), Il suono e il tacere for orchestra (2004), Vento d’ombra for chamber ensemble (2005), Archeologia del telefono for 13 instruments (2005), Storie di altre storie for harmonium and orchestra (2005), Shadow of Sound for orchestra (2005), Da gelo a gelo, opera (2006), 4 Adagi for flute and orchestra (2007), 12 Madrigali for seven or eight singers (2007), String Quartet no. 8 (2008), La porta della legge – quasi un monologo circolare, opera in one act (2008), Il giardino di Sara for soprano and instruments (2008), L’altro giardino for voice and eight instruments (2009), Libro notturno delle voci for flute and orchestra (2009), Superflumina, opera in one act (2010), Fanofania for ensemble (2010), Cantiere del poema for soprano and 10 instruments (2011), Senza sale d’aspetto for female presenter and orchestra (2011).