Andrea Centazzo (born 1948) is an Italian-born American composer, percussionist,

multimedia artist Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to traditio ...

and record label founder.

Music career

Centazzo was born in Udine, Italy. In the 1970s he played percussion in

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz and experimental jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through to the late 1960s. Orig ...

with

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...

, Steve Lacy, and

Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...

, and became "a leading figure in the European avant-garde". After 1986 he turned to video making and composed operas, film soundtracks and orchestral compositions. Since 1992, he has lived and worked in Los Angeles and has become a naturalized American citizen. He has also performed and recorded with

Albert Mangelsdorff Albert Mangelsdorff (September 5, 1928 – July 25, 2005) was a German jazz trombonist. Working mainly in free jazz, he was an innovator in multiphonics. Early life Mangelsdorff was born in Frankfurt on September 5, 1928, as the son of the book ...

Alvin Curran Alvin Curran (born December 13, 1938) is an American composer, performer, improviser, sound artist, and writer. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and lives and works in Rome, Italy. He is the co-founder, with Frederic Rzewski and Richard ...

Anthony Coleman Anthony Coleman (born August 30, 1955) is an avant-garde jazz pianist. During the 1980s and 1990s he worked with John Zorn on '' Cobra'', ''Kristallnacht'', '' The Big Gundown'', '' Archery'', and '' Spillane'' and helped push modern Jewish music ...

Evan Parker Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...

Gianluigi Trovesi Gianluigi Trovesi (born 1944) is an Italian jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He has won various Italian jazz awards. He also teaches in Italy. Early life Trovesi was born in Nembro near Bergamo in Lombardy in 1944. He studied harmony ...

Henry Kaiser Henry John Kaiser (May 9, 1882 – August 24, 1967) was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. Prior to World War II, Kaiser was involved in the construction industry; his company was one of ...

Sylvano Bussotti Sylvano Bussotti (1 October 1931 – 19 September 2021) was an Italian composer of contemporary classical music, also a painter, set and costume designer, opera director and manager, writer and academic teacher. His compositions employ graphic n ...

, Teo Jöergesmann,

Tom Cora Thomas Henry Corra (September 14, 1953 – April 9, 1998), better known as Tom Cora, was an American cellist and composer, best known for his improvisational performances in the field of experimental jazz and rock. He recorded with John Zorn, B ...

, and

Toshinori Kondo was a Japanese avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion trumpeter. Career Kondo was born in Ehime Prefecture. He attended Kyoto university in 1967, and became close friends with percussionist Tsuchitori Toshiyuki. In 1972 the pair left university, an ...

. He has conducted his own compositions with the

American Youth Symphony The American Youth Symphony (AYS) is an orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States, It was founded in 1964. Carlos Izcaray was announced as the third music director in the orchestra's history in 2016. History AYS was founded in 1 ...

, the L.A. Contemporary Orchestra, the Mitteleuropa Orchestra, and many ensembles. He has directed and staged his own opera compositions as well as theatrical plays by other U.S. authors. Centazzo has also created multimedia projects that fuse acoustic instruments, electronic instruments, and video. His multimedia projects include ''Mandala'', ''Eternal Traveler'', ''Einstein's Cosmic Messengers'', and ''R-Evolution''. In more recent live performances he has given solo multimedia concerts, accompanying his own videos. Centazzo has recorded over 60 LP's and CD's, and has composed 350 musical works of diverse types, in addition to writing eight musicology books.Andrea Centazzo: Biography
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2012 the Library of the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

opened the "Fondo Andrea Centazzo" with a collection of his works and documents.

Instrumental innovations

During his earlier career Centazzo developed a number of percussion instruments, including the icebell, a bowl-shaped instrument made from a bronze alloy. In his 1980 work ''Indian Tapes'' he introduced the ogororo,

lokole The lokole is a traditional slit drum played by the Mongo people in different areas of the Congo region, e.g., in the Kasai area. It is used both as a musical instrument and as a log drum to send messages in the bush; for example, it is known to ...

, tampang, tubophone and square bell, based on Native American instruments.

ICTUS

The ICTUS record label was founded in 1976 by Centazzo and his wife, Carla Lugli. Its first release was ''Clangs'' by Centazzo and Steve Lacy. Subsequent albums also featured

Andrew Cyrille Andrew Charles Cyrille (born November 10, 1939) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his career, he has performed both as a leader and a sideman in the bands of Walt Dickerson and Cecil Taylor, among others. AllMusic biographe ...

and

Lol Coxhill George Lowen Coxhill (19 September 1932 – 10 July 2012) known professionally as Lol Coxhill, was an English free improvising saxophonist. He played soprano and sopranino saxophone. Biography Coxhill was born to George Compton Coxhill ...

, among others. The label was wound up after eight years owing to financial difficulties, but was revived in 1995 and again in 2006. "ICTUS Records Nights @ The Stone (NYC) April 1-14"
by Michael Ricci, ''

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

'', March 21, 2012.

Compositions

Major compositions by Centazzo include the multimedia opera ''Tina'' (1996), ''The Soul in the Mist'' (2006), ''Moon in Winter'' (2011), ''The Heart of Wax'' (2012), and the multimedia project ''Tides of Gravity'' (2016). This last was produced in association with

LIGO The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Two large ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

and

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

to mark the first detection of

gravitational wave Gravitational waves are waves of the intensity of gravity generated by the accelerated masses of an orbital binary system that propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. They were first proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1 ...

s. Andrea Centazzo nota biografica
, ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna.

Music albums

''Source'':

Filmography

* 1986 ''Romance'' * 1992 ''Obiettivo indiscreto'' * 1995 ''Shadow of a Kiss'' (TV movie) * 1995 ''Star Struck'' * 1999 ''I Karaoke'' (short) * 2001 ''The Circle'' (short) * 2009 ''La Corsa'' (short) * 2009 ''

Mei Mei ''Mei Mei'' is a 2009 Chinese and US co-production drama short film directed by Xu Xiaoxi and written by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi. The film's premiere took place in Hungary, where the film was part of the official selection at the 3rd ...

'' (short) * 2009 ''

Toto Forever ''Toto Forever'', also known in Spanish as ''Toto Para Siempre'' or ''Siempre Toto'', is a 2010 dramatic short film directed by Roberto F. Canuto, written by Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, and starring Kylan James, Kjord Davis, Diana Grivas, Alexander Ag ...

'' (short) * 2010 ''

Desire Street Desire Street is a street in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. According to John Churchill Chase, the street is named for Désirée Gautier Montrieul, the daughter of Robert Gautier de Montrieul who owned the plantation on the land wh ...

'' * 2013 '' Ni Jing: Thou Shalt Not Steal'' * 2015 '' Floating Melon'' * 2016 ''

Advent (film) ''Advent'' (Original Asturian ''Ad-vientu''; ) is a 2016 Spanish and Chinese co-production psychological drama film, written and directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, and produced by the film company of the directors, ''Almost Red Prod ...

Books

* * * *

References

External links

Official Andrea Centazzo website

IMDb listing

Paiste Gongs

Ictus Movies - YouTube

Allmusic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Centazzo, Andrea American classical composers Italian classical composers Italian percussionists 1948 births Living people American male classical composers American percussionists 20th-century Italian composers 21st-century American composers 21st-century classical composers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians