Luciano Berio (1925 – 2003) was an Italian avant-garde composer, known for writing modernist serial music, aleatoric music, and music with electronic and pre-recorded spoken elements.
He was born in Imperia (formerly Oneglia) in Italy in 1925.
Music was in the family. He was taught to play the piano by both his father and grandfather as a child, and, after World War II, he enrolled in Milan Conservatory, hoping to continue his piano studies. A hand injury he sustained at the start of the war meant he had to pursue composition instead.
Berio studied at Milan Conservatory with Italian composers Giorgio Federico Ghedini and Giulio Cesare Paribeni.
He started earning his living as a répétiteur, and he met the celebrated American mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian, who he married and had a daughter with, and who became a big inspiration and collaborator for Berio.
He is most famous for his experimental avant garde music, including serial compositions, pieces with electronic and pre-recorded spoken elements, and aleatoric music, which is also known as chance or indeterminate music because the piece has elements deliberately left to the choice of the performer instead of the composer.
His well-known works include Sinfonia (1969) and Sequenza (1958-2004), his series of highly virtuosic works for solo instruments, as well as operas and other stage works.
He was a pedagogue, nurturing an important generation of composers. In 1960 he was composer in residence at Tanglewood, while teaching at Dartington International Summer School in Devon. In 1962 he took a teaching post at Mills College in Oakland, California, and there taught famous American composer Steve Reich and Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh among other influential musicians.
The well-known composers Berio taught include Steve Reich, Max Richter and Ludovico Einaudi.
Berio opened Tempo Reale, a centre for musical research and production in Florence, in 1982. He remained an incredibly productive composer and teacher until his death.
Did you know… Berio was conscripted into the army during World War II, but he didn’t get past his first day after injuring his hand during his introduction to operating a gun. He spent a period in a military hospital before fleeing and avoiding military involvement in the war, his hand continuing to throw up issues beyond the conflict.
