Paolo Longo
Paolo Longo (born October 30, 1967 in Trieste, Italy) is an Italian composer and conductor. Life. He studied composition, piano and conducting in Trieste, where he graduated in 1990 with highest honors. In 1998 he moved to France, where he lived until 2007. His works (mainly chamber, vocal and piano music) have been awarded in several International Competitions; he received First Prize in the "Edvard Grieg Memorial Competition" in Oslo in 2003, the "ADNM Competition" in Tarragona and the "Ivan Spassov competition" in Plovdiv in 2004, the "Tokyo chamber music competition" and the "Renée B. Fisher Composer Awards  in New Haven in 2005, the Onde Musicali competition" in Taranto, the "ISCM-Miami competition" and the competition of the "Académie Internationale de Lutèce" in Paris in 2006. He has also earned second prizes and special mentions in Rome ("Premio Valentino Bucchi"), Piacenza ("Egidio Carella Competition"), Geneva ("Prix Reine Marie José"), Urbana-Champaign ("Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award"), Angoulême, Cuneo, Auckland and many others. His compositions (based on diverse processes as cellular proliferation and spectral synthesis) have been performed in festivals and in concert seasons in Europe, in the United States, in Japan and in New Zealand; they have been  broadcast by radios and TV channels. His first stage work, "Le Songe d'un habitant du Mogol" (text by Jean de la Fontaine, derived from a story in the Gulistan of Sa'di), commissioned by the "Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing", has been premiered in Lille (“Festival Lille 3000”) in 2007. Most of his works are published by "Symétrie" (Lyon, France). As a conductor, he works especially into contemporary music; he premiered works by composers such as Bruno Bettinelli, Aldo Clementi, Azio Corghi, Pascal Dusapin, Michaël Levinas, Giacomo Manzoni, Ennio Morricone, Francesco Pennisi and many others. In 1996 he co-founded (with the  composer Stefano Procaccioli) the "Taukayensemble", with which he has commissioned numerous works, and has since served as its principal conductor and music director.