Cecilia Seghizzi (5 September 1908 – 22 November 2019) was an Italian composer, painter and teacher.

Biography

Cecilia Seghizzi was the daughter of composer and choirmaster (19 January 1873 – 5 January 1933), one of Italy's most popular composers. After coming back to Italy after being exiled to the

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

of Wagna in Austria during World War I, Cecilia began studying the violin with Alfredo Lucarini and graduated with honors from the Conservatory "G. Verdi" in Milan. In her thirties she alternated between concerts and teaching in middle school and music school. She began in the meantime to devote herself to composition, completing her studies with a diploma from the conservatory "Tartini" in Trieste under the guidance of Vito Levi. In her fifties she founded and managed the complex Gorizia polyphonic, with which she won first prize at the national polyphonic competition in Brescia. The recognition from this got her a series of concerts and recordings for major venues both at home and abroad. She lived the rest of her life in Gorizia,

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Style

Her music catalog included more than 130 compositions, among which many are choral music. It is in choral music that she used sonorities and driving rhythms, humorous and light swings the most. In this her work is similar to that of Alfredo Casella, Paul Hindemith, and Giulio Viozzi. Her style, very conservative, is linked to neo-classicism, and has had no trace of the innovations introduced by

avant-garde music Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original elemen ...

since the 1930s.

Personal life

On 5 September 2018, she became a

supercentenarian A supercentenarian (sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian) is a person who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of major age-related diseases u ...

upon celebrating her 110th birthday. She died on 22 November 2019, aged 111.

Selected works

*Sonata for Oboe and Piano (1963) *By night flute, soprano and piano (1979) *Concertino for horn and strings (1981) *Divertimento for violin and piano (1982) *Waltz for flute and piano (1984)

References

1908 births 2019 deaths People from Gorizia Women supercentenarians Italian supercentenarians Italian women painters 20th-century Italian women artists 20th-century Italian women composers 20th-century Italian painters {{Italy-painter-stub