Ludovico Einaudi

Ludovico Maria Enrico Einaudi OMRI (; born 23 November 1955) is an Italian pianist and composer. Trained at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, Einaudi began his career as a classical composer, later incorporating other styles and genres such as pop, rock, folk, and world music.

Einaudi has composed the scores for a number of films and television productions, including ''This Is England'', ''The Intouchables'', '' I'm Still Here'', the TV miniseries ''Doctor Zhivago'', and ''Acquario'' (1996), for which he won the Grolla d'oro. His music was used as the score for the Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning films ''Nomadland'' and '' The Father'.''

He has also released a number of solo albums for piano and other instruments, notably ''I Giorni'' in 2001, ''Nightbook'' in 2009, and ''In a Time Lapse'' in 2013. On 1 March 2019, Einaudi announced a seven-part project named ''Seven Days Walking'', which was released over the course of seven months in 2019.

Early life and education

Einaudi was born in Turin, Piedmont. His father, Giulio Einaudi, was a publisher working with authors including Italo Calvino and Primo Levi, and founder of Giulio Einaudi Editore, while his paternal grandfather, Luigi Einaudi, was President of Italy between 1948 and 1955. His mother, Renata Aldrovandi, played the piano to him as a child. Her father, Waldo Aldrovandi, was a pianist, opera conductor, and composer who emigrated to Australia after World War II."Bio / More About Ludovico Einaudi"
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Einaudi started composing his own music as a teenager, first writing by playing a folk guitar. He began his musical training at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, obtaining a diploma in composition in 1982. That same year he took an orchestration class taught by Luciano Berio and was awarded a scholarship to the Tanglewood Music Festival. According to Einaudi, " uciano Beriodid some interesting work with African vocal music and did some arrangements of Beatles songs, and he taught me that there is a sort of dignity inside music. I learnt orchestration from him and a very open way of thinking about music." He also learned by collaborating with musicians such as Ballaké Sissoko from Mali and Djivan Gasparyan from Armenia. His music is ambient, meditative, and often introspective, drawing on minimalism and contemporary pop.

Music career

1980s

After studying at the conservatory in Milan and subsequently with Berio, Einaudi spent several years composing in traditional forms, including several chamber and orchestral compositions. He soon garnered international attention and his music was performed at venues such as the Teatro alla Scala, the Tanglewood Music Festival, Lincoln Center, and the UCLA Center for Performing Arts.

In the mid-1980s, he began to search for more personal expression in a series of works for dance and multimedia, and later for piano.

Some of his collaborations in theater, video, and dance included compositions for the Sul filo d'Orfeo in 1984, ''Time Out'' in 1988, a dance-theater piece created with writer Andrea De Carlo, ''The Wild Man'' in 1990, and the'' Emperor'' in 1991. Later collaborations include ''Salgari'' (''Per terra e per mare'') (1995), an opera/ballet commissioned by the Arena di Verona with texts by Emilio Salgari, Rabindranath Tagore, and Charles Duke Jr, and ''E.A. Poe'' (1997), which was conceived as a soundtrack for silent films.

Soundtracks

Einaudi began using his style to compose film soundtracks in the mid-1990s. He started with two films by Michele Sordillo, ''Da qualche parte in città'' in 1994 and ''Acquario'' in 1996, for which he won the Grolla d'oro for best soundtrack. In 1998, he composed the soundtrack for ''Treno di panna'' and the score for ''Giorni dispari'' by Dominick Tambasco.

In 2000, he collaborated with Antonello Grimaldi on ''Un delitto impossibile'', and he also composed the soundtrack for ''Fuori del mondo'', which was nominated for an Oscar Award and for which he won the Echo Klassik award in Germany in 2002. After the release of his debut album, some excerpts were included in the film '' Aprile'' by Nanni Moretti. In 2002, his soundtrack for ''Luce dei miei occhi'' was named best soundtrack at the 2002 Italian Music Awards.

In 2002, Einaudi won an Italian award for Best Film Score for '' Luce dei miei occhi''. Allmusic gave his score for the 2002 TV serial ''Doctor Zhivago'' 4.5/5 stars and published a glowing review, comparing it in skill to Maurice Jarre's score of the previous film adaptation.

In 2004, his soundtrack for '' Sotto falso nome'' received the prize for the best film music at the Avignon Film Festival.

In 2010, Einaudi wrote the music for the trailer of ''Black Swan''. His "Due Tramonti" was featured in the film '' I'm Still Here'' (2010), directed by Casey Affleck. His composition "Nuvole Bianche" was featured in the film ''Insidious'' (2010), directed by James Wan, the British TV drama '' This Is England 86'', and in the TV series ''Derek'' (2012), directed by and starring Ricky Gervais. To ''The Intouchables'' (2011), the biggest box office movie in French history, he contributed the tracks "Fly", "Writing Poems", "L'origine nascosta", "Cache-cache", "Una Mattina", and "Primavera." The film ''This Is England'' featured ''Fuori dal mondo'' and ''Dietro casa''. The British TV drama series ''This Is England '88'' also contained the tracks "Fuori Dalla Notte", "Solo" (a bonus track from ''Nightbook''), "Berlin Song", and "Distacco".

In 2016, Einaudi participated in the Greenpeace campaign to save the Arctic.

Solo releases

Einaudi is signed to Decca Records and is published by Chester Music Limited, part of the Music Sales Group of Companies.

After the multi-media-inspired ''Time Out'' in 1988, in 1992 he released '' Stanze'', which he had composed for harp. The album was performed by Cecilia Chailly, one of the first musicians to use an electric harp. Einaudi released his first solo piano album, ''Le Onde'', in 1996, under BMG. The album is based on the novel ''The Waves'' by British writer Virginia Woolf, and enjoyed mainstream success, particularly in Italy and the UK. His 1999 followup, '' Eden Roc'', was also released on BMG, with shorter pieces. For the project he collaborated with the Armenian duduk musician Djivan Gasparyan.

His next solo piano release, ''I Giorni'' (2001), was inspired by his travels in Africa. The solo piano track "I Giorni" was featured in a BBC
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