Marko Ciciliani (born February 23, 1970) is a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

audiovisual art Audiovisual art is the exploration of kinetic abstract art and music or sound set in relation to each other. It includes visual music, abstract film, audiovisual performances and installations. Overview The book ''Art and the Senses'' cites th ...

ist and

performer The performing arts are The arts, arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art object ...

Life

Marko Ciciliani was born in 1970 in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. In 1971 his parents emigrated to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

where he predominantly grew up in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

. Starting in 1990 he studied composition and music-theory with

Ulrich Leyendecker Ulrich Leyendecker (29 January 1946 — 29 November 2018) was a German composer of classical music. His output consisted mainly of symphonies, concertos, chamber and instrumental music. Life Leyendecker studied composition with Ingo Schmitt (196 ...

at the

Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg The Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg is one of the larger universities of music in Germany. It was founded 1950 as ''Staatliche Hochschule für Musik'' (Public college of music) on the base of the former private acting school of Annem ...

. From 1993 to 1994 he spent a year in New York City, studying at the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...

with

Nils Vigeland Nils Vigeland (born 1950 in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, New York (state), New York) is an American composer and pianist. Career Vigeland made his professional debut as a pianist in 1969 with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He later studied comp ...

. After returning to Hamburg he continued his studies until his graduation with Manfred Stahnke. In 1996 he emigrated to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, where he studied until 1998 as a post-graduate student at the

Royal Conservatory of The Hague The Royal Conservatoire ( nl, Koninklijk Conservatorium, KC) is a conservatoire in The Hague, providing higher education in music and dance. The conservatoire was founded by King William I in 1826, making it the oldest conservatoire in the Netherl ...

. His principal teachers during that time were

Clarence Barlow Clarence Barlow (also Klarenz, born 27 December 1945) is a composer of classical and electroacoustic works. Career Barlow was one of the founders of Initiative Musik und Informatik Köln. In 1988 he was the director of music at the Internatio ...

and

Louis Andriessen Louis Joseph Andriessen (; 6 June 1939 – 1 July 2021) was a Dutch composer, pianist and academic teacher. Considered the most influential Dutch composer of his generation, he was a central proponent of The Hague school of composition. Although ...

. Ciciliani remained in Amsterdam until 2010, living primarily as a free-lance composer and playing an active role in the Dutch music scene. Since the early 2000 he was also increasingly active as a sound-engineer and performer of electronic music. He performed with many leading ensembles and orchestras, such as the

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra ( nl, Koninklĳk Concertgebouworkest, ) is a Dutch symphony orchestra, based at the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw (concert hall). Considered one of the world's leading orchestras, Queen Beatrix conferred the "R ...

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Australian orchestra based in Melbourne. The MSO is resident at Hamer Hall. The MSO has its own choir, the MSO Chorus, following integration with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008. The MSO relies on f ...

or the SWR Orchestra, as well as

MusikFabrik The Ensemble Musikfabrik (music factory ensemble) is an ensemble for contemporary classical music located in Cologne. Their official name is Ensemble Musikfabrik Landesensemble NRW e.V. (Ensemble Musikfabrik of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia ...

and ASKO. In 2007 Ciciliani started a PhD at the

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...

London under supervision of

Bob Gilmore Bob Gilmore (6 June 1961 – 2 January 2015) was a musicologist, educator and keyboard player. Born in Larne, Northern Ireland, he spent his early years in Carrickfergus. He studied music at York University, England, then at Queen's University ...

and Johannes Birringer. He completed his doctorate studies in 2010 with a thesis on interrelationships between visual media and music, specifically in the context of using light designs as part of compositions. In 2010 he moved to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, taking up a teaching position at the

University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university located in Vienna, established in 1817. With a student body of over three thousa ...

. In 2011 he became guest-professor at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) of the

University of Music and Performing Arts Graz The University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, also known as Kunstuniversität Graz (KUG) is an Austrian university. Its roots can be traced back to the music school of the '' Akademischer Musikverein'' founded in 1816, making it the oldest u ...

. In October 2014 he was appointed full professor for

computer music Computer music is the application of computing technology in music composition, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with algorithmic composition programs. It includes the theory and ap ...

composition and

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...

at the IEM.

Work

Open Form Period

Already in his early works Ciciliani showed a fascination for works of open forms which formed the center of his works from 1999. This interest was partly fed by his fascination for the music of

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

which was one of the reasons why he went to study in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with

– a former close collaborator of Cage. In order to be able to extend open form and algorithmic principles to the realm of electronic sound synthesis, he started using SuperCollider in 2001. His open form period culminated with the live-installation "Map of Marble" which was premiered at the Zagreb Biennale in 2005 Also in 2005 he released the CD "Voor het Hooren Geboren" containing open form chamber music played by ensemble Intégrales.

Improvisation and No-input Mixer

From 2000 Ciciliani started experimenting with electronic improvisation. Between 2001 and 2005 he co-organized the concert series Kraakgeluiden in Amsterdam with Anne LaBerge. This weekly series featured electronic improvised music and became an important center for the experimental music scene in the Netherlands. As an instrument for improvisation Ciciliani used a no-input mixer, a mixing board in which internal feedbacks are generated by connecting the outputs to the inputs. In 2008 he released the CD "81 matters in elemental order" which was entirely produced and composed with the no-input mixer. Shortly after this release he stopped performing with the no-input mixer.

Audiovisual Works

Ciciliani started to work with lighting as an important part of his compositions in 2003. This became one of his main areas of interest which also led to his dissertation at Brunel University in 2010. In 2005 he founded his own ensemble “Bakin Zub”, which focussed on multimedia works which combine instrumental parts, live-electronics and visuals. Bakin Zub's last public appearance was in 2014, when it premiered Ciciliani's program-length work "Suicidal Self Portraits" at the festival Forum Neuer Musik Deutschlandfunk in Cologne. More recently, Ciciliani has primarily worked with live-video in his audiovisual works, as for example in his solo compositions "Via" or "Formula minus One". After having realized two works using laser in 2007 and 2009, he used this medium again in his "Steina" for violin, live-electronics, live-video and laser. In 2015 Ciciliani produced a book titled "Pop Wall Alphabet". It is a transmedia work combining 4.5 hours of music (included as a DVD with the book), roughly 300 pages of digitally generated texts and 27 images. The work is based on condensations of material from publications of pop music, be it as superimpositions of songs, rearranged texts or combined artworks as images. The music was described a "monlythic verticalisation of sound". The focus of this work is a study of perception and acoustic pareidolias. In 2019 Ciciliani's most recent publication was released by ChampDAction in Antwerp titled "Transgressions". It consist of a book with an integrated USB stick that contains four audiovisual compositions. Furthermore, the book contains a reprint of his text "Music in the Expanded Field – on recent Approaches in Interdisciplinary Composition", which is based on a lecture he gave at the Darmstadt Summer Courses in 2016.

Game-based compositions

In 2015, Ciciliani has been granted a PEEK project by the

Austrian Science Fund The Austrian Science Fund (german: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, FWF) is the most important Austrian funding organization for basic research. The FWF supports research in science, engineering, and the humanities through a ...

with the title "GAPPP – Gamified Audiovisual Performance and Performance Practice" (AR 364). It was an artistic research project that ran from 2016-21, and in which together with violinist and researcher Barbara Lüneburg and musicologist Andreas Pirchner, Ciciliani investigated elements from computer games in the context of audiovisual composition and performance for their aesthetic potential. With this project Ciciliani deepened his interest in either overtly referencing game culture - as in his composition "Kilgore" - or integrating competitive and/or interactive elements from computer games in subtle ways - as in the project "Tympanic Touch". The interest for computer game elements can be found in his work since "Homo Ludens", composed in 2013 for the Ensemble des XX. Jahrhunderts. Through the work with game-elements he is returning to principles of composition that he already thoroughly explored in his numerous open form compositions from the early 2000. The research concluded with the publication of the multimedia book "LUDIFIED", which includes a USB-stick with more than four hours of video-material, and downloadable apps for the experience of augmented reality with certain images in the book. It has been published by TheGreenBox in Berlin.

Performances, Residencies and Teaching activities

Ciciliani's music has been performed in more than 45 countries in Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. It has been programmed by festivals and concert series of alternative experimental music like

Experimental Intermedia An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

/NYC,

Club Transmediale The annual CTM Festival is a music and visual arts event held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1999, the festival originally focused on electronic music, but has since evolved to cover a wide range of genres under the banner "Festival for Adventurou ...

/Berlin, SuperDeluxe/Tokyo, Findars/Kuala Lumpur, Ibrasotope/São Paulo or the NowNow Series/Sydney; just as much as by festivals for post-avantgarde music as

Donaueschinger Musiktage The Donaueschingen Festival (german: Donaueschinger Musiktage, links=no) is a festival for new music that takes place every October in the small town of Donaueschingen in south-western Germany. Founded in 1921, it is considered the oldest festiv ...

Wien Modern Wien Modern is a modern music festival in Vienna, Austria that was founded by Claudio Abbado in 1988. It was created with the intent of revitalizing the traditional music scene of Vienna. Friedrich Cerha, Johannes Maria Staud, Mark Andre, Wolfgan ...

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (also known by the acronym HCMF, stylised since 2006 as the lowercase hcmf//) is a new music festival held annually in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Since its foundation in 1978, it has featured ...

MaerzMusik MaerzMusik is a festival of the Berliner Festspiele and has been held annually since 2002 in March at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and other venues. It is the successor festival to the Musik-Biennale Berlin and is considered one of the most im ...

, Condit and many more. His music has been performed by high ranking ensembles like ICTUS ensemble, ensemble Intégrales, ASKO, Zeitkratzer, piano possible and many more. In his recent work, however, Ciciliani has focused on works for smaller settings, solo works and works for live-electronics alone. He also regularly performs with a repertoire of audiovisual solo compositions. In 2009 Marko Ciciliani was recipient of the prestigious

Villa Aurora The Villa Aurora at 520 Paseo Miramar is located in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles and has been used as an artists' residence since 1995. It is the former home of the German-Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta. The Feuchtwanger ...

Stipend, a three-month artists residency in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Also in 2009 he was composer-in-residence of the 14th Composers Forum in

Mittersill Mittersill ( bar, Mittasü) is a city in the federal state of Salzburg, Austria, in the Pinzgau region of the Alps. It is located on the Salzach River. It has a population of 5,408 as of 2011. Geography Mittersill lies approximately 25 km to the ...

/Austria. He received numerous project-residencies at

STEIM STEIM (STudio for Electro Instrumental Music) was a center for research and development of new musical instruments in the electronic performing arts, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Beginning in the 1970's, STEIM became known as a pioneering cen ...

, ESS, ICST and

ZKM The ZKM , Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (until March 2016: ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology), a cultural institution, was founded in 1989. and since 1997 is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former muni ...

. In 2014 Ciciliani has taught at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music where he also presented a portrait concert. This invitation took place as part of the IEM's studio residency at the Summer Courses. In 2016 he has also been invited individually as teacher to the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, where he offered individual lessons and a.o. a workshop on audiovisual composition, titled "Music in the Expanded Field". He returned to Darmstadt as tutor in 2018. Since 2013 Ciciliani has regularly participated at the interdisciplinary course LAbO in Antwerp, which is organized by ChampDAction He was Artistic Director of this summer course in the seasons 2017, 2020 and 2021.

Research

Ciciliani has various publications in the field of performance studies and audiovisuality. He has developed a method for the analysis of performance practices in electronic music. Here performance is understood as an audiovisual event which becomes part of the presented work and therefore gains aesthetic relevance. With this method the analysis of a particular performance practice results in a graph on a parametric field, which facilitates the comparison of different performance practices with each other. To regard performance as an audiovisual event is in line with Ciciliani's longer lasting research in the field of audiovisuality which has resulted in his dissertation and other publications. Many publications have resulted from the artistic research project "GAPPP – Gamified Audiovisual Performance and Performance Practice" (AR 364) that Ciciliani is leading since 2016.

Selected works

* ''miris misli'' for large orchestra 1994 ~ 20' * ''Starring: Peater Mallet'' for three percussionists 1994/95 ~ 40' * ''k: die S.kalierung einer Bewegung – Tek...kno'' for singer/narrator and live-electronics 1995 ~ 11’ * ''Bosch tapped the gas pedal and the caprice moved forward...'' for two performers and live-electronics (collaboration with Jeff Kowalkowski) 1996–2000 ~70’ * ''Tullius Rooms'' for piano, live-electronics and soundscapes 1999/2000 ~80' * ''Fabric Reverie'' for chamber orchestra, CD and a reciting conductor 2000 ~15' * ''Homerun'' for alto and 8 instruments (rec., cl., trb., pno., perc., el.-guit., vln., db.), 5 movements 2001 20' * ''Matrosen, Leprakranke, Opiumraucher, Spione. Mit so 'ner Familiengeschichte, wie haben wir da was anderes werden können als Schlampen?'' for viola 2001 20' * ''Maske'' for no-input mixer 2002 ~30’ * ''KörperKlang'' for viola, alto-sax, piano and live-electronics 2003 ~13’ * ''Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean that they're not after you'' for solo-violin, large ensemble, live-electronics and light 2003 ~15’ * ''Sequenced Seizure'' for string quartet ~30' 2004 * ''Map of Marble'' for voice, percussion, live-electronics and computer generated lighting ~80' 2004/2005 * ''My Ultadeep I'' for e-guitar, e-bass, vln/vla, sopranino sax, didjeridu, perc., electronics and light ~65' 2006/2007 * ''Alias'' for e-violin, electronics, light and laser ~20' 2007 * ''Jeanne of the Dark'' for electric guitar/bass, electric vln., perc., live-electronics, video and lighting ~60’ 2008 * ''Dromomania'' for two pianos, live-electronics, soundtracks and lighting ~40’ 2009 * ''Black Horizon'' for two table-top guitars and four players ~21’ 2009 * ''All of Yesterday’s Parties'' for voice, electric guitar and live-electronics ~12’ 2010 * ''Pop Wall Alphabet'' for soundtracks ~4 hours and 30 minutes 2011–14 * ''Heterotopolis'' for violin, baritone guitar/6-string fretless bass, modular synthesizer, digital synthesis, live-electronics, lighting and laser (collaboration with visual artist Marcel Bühler) ~55’ 2011/12 * ''Time Machine'' for sensor-equipped bass-clarinet (SABRe), live-electronics, live-video and lighting 16' 2012/13 * ''LipsEarsAssNoseBoobs (Gloomy Sunday)'' for electric violin, percussion, keyboards, live-electronics and video ~14’ 2014 * ''Formula minus One'' for electric violin, live-electronics and live video ~10' 2014 * ''Via'' for live-electronics and live-video ~14’ 2015 * ''Steina'' for violin, live-electronics and live-generated video and laser design ~28’ 2015 * ''Audiodromo'' for four percussionists, live-electronics and live-video ~10’ 2016 * ''Tympanic Touch'' for two performers and a game-system 15' 2017 * ''Kilgore'' for two performers and a game-system 25' 2018 * ''Kilgore's Resort'' installation 2018 * ''Anna & Marie'' concert installation, electric violin, baroque violin, live-electronics, two live-videos, augmented reality and light-design, indeterminate duration 2018/19 * ''Rave Séance'' performance installation, indeterminate duration 2020

CD, DVD and book releases

Full Releases

* ''Bosch tapped the gas pedal and the Caprice moved forward…'' (62:28), 2001, collaboration with Jeff Kowalkowski, released by NoHarmDone/NYC * ''Tullius Rooms'' for piano, electronics and soundscapes (78:27), 2003, piano: Josh Dillon, electronics and inside piano: Marko Ciciliani, released by Unsounds/Amsterdam in coproduction with RadioBremen * ''Voor het hooren geboren'' (71:24), 2006, five chamber-musical works performed by ensemble Intégrales, released by Coviello Classics/Darmstadt * ''81 Matters in elemental Order'' (58:46), 2008, for no-input mixer, released by Evil Rabbit Records/Amsterdam * ''Jeanne of the Dark'' (49:21), 2011, for electric violin, electric guitar, electric bass, keyboards, electronics and percussion, released by Ahornfelder/Hamburg * ''Pop Wall Alphabet'' (approx. 270'), 2015, a book containing a DVD, 311 pages with 27 color images, private print for promotion only * ''Transgressions'' (approx. 67'), 2019, a book with integrated USB stick containing audiovisual works, 74 pages, released by ChampDAction/Antwerp * ''LUDIFIED'' (approx. 120'), 2021, multimedia book with integrated USB stick containing audiovisual works, 248 pages, released by TheGreenBox/Berlin

Compilations

* ''Kraakgeluiden/Document 1'' (2003) released by Unsounds/Amsterdam, contains improvisation with

Yannis Kyriakides Yannis Kyriakides (Greek: Γιάννης Κυριακίδης, born 1 August 1969) is a composer of contemporary classical music, and sound art. His music explores new forms and hybrids of media, synthesizing disparate sound sources and highlighti ...

Lucio Capece Lucio is an Italian and Spanish male given name derived from the Latin name ''Lucius''. In Portuguese, the given name is accented Lúcio. Lucio is also an Italian surname. Given name * Lúcio (Lucimar Ferreira da Silva) (born 1978), Brazilian ...

and

Yoshio Machida is an experimental musician, a steelpanist, composer, and visual artist. Person A member of ASCAP, Machida studied minimal art, music and film at the Tama Art University under Kuniharu Akiyama, Yoshiaki Touno, Sakumi Hagiwara and Kishio Sug ...

(9:57) * ''Music for Baby'' (2004) released by Amorfon/Tokyo, contains ''Pavillion'' for string ensemble (5:12) * ''Young European Generation'' (2005) released by Zeitklang/Berlin, contains ''KörperKlang'' for viola, alto sax, piano and live electronics (12:13) ensemble Intégrales * ''Jorge Isaac Solo'' (2007)released by Electroshock Recordings, Moscow, contains ''Quartz Stalagnat'' for recorder and electronics (18:15) performed by Jorge Isaac * ''Test Tone Anthology'' (2009) released by: Medama Records, Tokyo, contains improvisation with Yoshio Machida (7:12) * ''Kofomi #14'' (2010), released by ein–klang records, Vienna, contains ''Zwischenraumstudie'' for flute, clarinet, viola and cello (5:34) * ''Anthology of Dutch Musik'' (2011) released by MuziekCentrum NL, Amsterdam, contains an excerpt from the 80 minute composition ''Map of Marble'' (6:39) * ''Weapon of Choice'' (2011) released by Ahornfelder, Hamburg, DVD, contains ''Alias'' for electric violin, live-electronics, lighting and laser (20:41) performed by Barbara Lüneburg * ''Etude Gone Badum'' (2013) released by Ahornfelder, Hamburg, contains ''Black Horizon'' for two table-top guitars and four players (21:32) played by Håkon Stene and Marko Ciciliani * ''Reciprocity – Nico Couck'' (2013) released by Champ d'Action, Antwerp, contains ''All of Yesterday's Parties'' for voice, electric guitar and live electronics (12:27) played by Nico Couck * ''Palavras e Sons'' (2015) released by NMElindo, São Paulo, contains ''Dromomania (job of dying's done)'' for electronics (9:34)

References

External links

Official Website

Audiovisual Works

Works on SoundCloud

Academic Publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciciliani, Marko 1970 births Living people Croatian composers Performance artists