“Since his Master graduation, I have seen Paolo Gorini develop as a
strong power in the interpretation and creation of new music, in-
and outside The Netherlands. He is very present in concert life, and
his performances are strong and always fully dedicated to his
chosen repertoire.”

“This capacity for synthesis, combined with an excellent free and
curious musical culture, makes Paolo a true composer; his music
creates a bond with the listeners and enfolds and surprises them [...]”

Arnold Marinissen, PhD

Head of New Music, Master research and Classical Voice

Conservatorium van Amsterdam

Mauro Montalbetti

Composer, teacher, artistic director “Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte di
Montepulciano”

News

14/11/2024

Night (e)scape is out!

This seven-part work is now accessible on all streaming platforms!

Featuring soprano Elisabeth Hetherington and lyrics by Barbara Black.

If you prefer a more cinematic experience, please visit the Listening Booth for
the link to the videoclip.

I was around 8 or 9 years old, and out of sheer curiosity, I picked up a
random CD from my parents' collection. The stereo set filled the room
with Chopin's first ballade; goosebumps appeared on my skin, shivers ran
down my spine, and an electrifying and ecstatic feeling got a hold of me.
Right then and there, I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up: recreate
that same mesmerizing feeling and share it with others. So, I started
taking piano lessons, and that's when my journey began.

Jump to

My story

My music

My projects

INTRO

I come from a small village that looks upon a small lake in North Italy. Landscape
artists Christo & Jean-Claude made it super famous back in 2016 with their work
'Floating Piers'. My first piano teacher ever was my grandfather Angelo; he
probably taught me the most important thing: "Paolo, to be a musician, you need
the 3 Ps: Patience, Passion and Perseverance." So true.

So, off I went to the nearest 'big city'—Brescia—to attend high school and the
conservatoire. I was the unconventional teenager madly in love with classical
music, my portable CD player (yes, I grew up with one of those) blasting
Rachmaninov, Chopin, Beethoven, and all the gang.

The more I learned the black-and-white terrain of the piano, the more I wanted
to 'just play'. So, I got myself a basic audio recorder and started improvising.
What a feeling! I was creating music on the spot.

I humbly and shyly handed these 'experiments' to composer Mauro Montalbetti,
who visited my high school for a series of lectures. I was very interested to get
his feedback and to know whether there was something I could build upon.

My story

He did see something. He invited me to start taking composition
classes with him, so I did. I learned how to read an orchestral score,
the orchestration tricks and how to translate on paper (yes, the
physical sheet music with pencil and rubber eraser at hand) the
whirlwind of my imagination.

During those weekly meetings, I discovered what is referred to as
'Contemporary music': the music of living people. A new door opened
in front of me; there was so much to discover, listen to, and learn!
Every composer paints a different sound world, and I was eager to
get my hands on that. I became the best friends of the librarians of all
the conservatoires I attended, and I explored the dark corner shelves
where the "contemporary music repertoire" was patiently collecting
dust.

Okay, what about the piano, then? Montalbetti suggested I go to Milan to play for Andrea Rebaudengo, a contemporary music
specialist and the pianist of Ensemble Sentieri Selvaggi. That was another pivotal encounter as I started to use my piano skills to
serve the music of "now," and I had the chance to play a few times with a professional ensemble such as Sentieri Selvaggi.

Milano was the place to be after my " classical-oriented" bachelor's degree in Brescia. I enrolled in the Chamber Music Master's
degree, got to play with many great fellow students, and even landed in one of the most prestigious contemporary music
festivals called Milano Musica, playing Bruno Maderna's "Concerto for 2 pianos and instruments": what a ride!

I was in my early 20s then, with all the excitement and stamina that goes along with it. I was traveling two or three times per
week between Milano and Brescia, practising like crazy, attending concerts in the city, and throwing parties in my one-bedroom
apartment.

At this point, Montalbetti's wisdom kicked in again: "Paolo, I think you should go study abroad." Okay, that's a giant leap, but I
took that step. At the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, there is this 'Master in Piano with New Music specialisation', which
seemed perfect for me. "Bye, Mum and Dad. I will live in Amsterdam for a couple of years". That was almost nine years ago!

My first public appearance in a concert setting in Amsterdam
was with the Score Collective Ensemble of the CvA in the
Kleinezaal of Concertgebouw: quite a start!

Besides one project as a soloist in Elliot Carter's Double
Concerto, my time in The Netherlands has been dedicated to
collaborations. I felt so lucky to meet, engage with, play with, and
hang out with so many people from all over the world: a great
lesson in cultural exchange.

Several projects bloomed during my time in the "Venice of North"
(as some Italians call Amsterdam). If you want to know more
about them, I suggest you look at the Section "Projects," where I
discuss them in more professional detail.

As I look back on my journey from the peaceful little village to the bustling cities, I am grateful for the mentors, the musicians,
and the moments that shaped my musical destiny. As I walk further down my artistic path, I carry the lessons of patience,
passion, and perseverance that my grandfather infused in me—a legacy that echoes in every day of my life.

So, welcome to my website! I am glad you made until here. I hope you will
enjoy yourself, and learn something about what I do with music!

Claudio Monteverdi, Luciano Berio, Gyorgy Ligeti,
Radiohead, Steve Reich, Herbie Hancock, Muse, Bill
Evans, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, Emerson, Lake &
Palmer, Jon Hopkins... my taste in music has gone
through a lot of phases and all of these can be heard,
somehow, in my compositions. If I have to boil it down
to some features, I like rhythmical drive, order, clarity,
and sound design. However, Creativity is a strange
beast, a chameleonic creature of our mind, slippery,
transparent, continuously morphing in unexpected
shapes, the lightest feather to grasp gently (if you can!).

My music

Feel free to peruse the “catalog” below. If you want to
listen, it’s best to head to the Listening booth section,
but I will also leave some anchor links here and there.

Quick jump to

Bigger stuff

Chamber music

Solo stuff

Solo stuff

It’s like...

for voice (S/M) and piano

Text by Emily Dickinson

2014

Chamber music with and without voice

Night (e)scape

for voice (S), keyboards,
electronics

Text by Barbara Black

2023

Broken chain

for clarinet and piano

2018/2019

Caligo Luminis

for voice (S) and piano

Text from fragments
by Luigi Tansillo and
others

commissioned by “CidneOn
Festival internazionale delle
luci” - Brescia (IT)

2017/2018

Bigger stuff

My projects

Generously supported by

The music of PRISMI attracts like a magnet what I find most interesting: rhythm
and mechanism, the sonic world inside the piano, the space between sound and
noise, the sound design technologies, the murmurs of the night.

This project bloomed during the dark pandemic times, I am glad I could find this
creative anchor!

The whole set is roughly 60 minutes long, the video on the left shows the keyboards set
up.

PRISMI

Clock Beats Heart Machine (piano and loop station)

Grid 3 (piano)

Seven colours of the night (piano, toy piano and melodica)

Beyond the sound’s mirror (piano - new version 2021)

Corpi Elettrici (seaboard)

For more information about each piece, you can head here

Wanna listen? Great! Please head here

Night (e)scape results from a deeper search inside my solo piece Seven
Colours of the Night" whose creative and imaginative process has been
one of the most challenging and inspiring in my artistic practice. Months
after I finished Seven Colours of the Night, my imagination kept running
to that world, and my notebook was still filled with numerous drafts,
sketches, and ideas. Why not go back and give it another life, a different
sound? Why not make the story more tangible using an actual text sung
by a singer? Working on this topic profoundly affected me; it opened a
precious and fruitful space in my artistic imagination that I wanted to
explore further.

Generously supported by

Duo Ebano

Duo Ebano's journey began with the friendship of Marco Danesi,
an exceptionally skilled clarinettist and fantastic person.
Although we are from the same city (Brescia) and studied at the
same school (Milan's Conservatoire), I officially met Marco in
2015 when I started my master's in Amsterdam.

Our contrasting personalities maintain a balance in our
approach to making music, encouraging each other to strive for
higher and higher standards.

Our musical collaboration began officially in 2016 with low-
profile concerts organised by the CvA. Over the years, we
gained some recognition in The Netherlands and abroad
(Storioni Toonzaal prijs 2018, 1st prize Salieri-Zinetti
competition in Verona—IT, and the Dutch Classical Talent Tour
2019/2020).

Both of us are involved in new music, and we strive to be
creative in the programs we propose.

For more info, please head to our website: www.duoebano.com

To listen Duo Ebano’s playing, please head to the “Listening booth” section

Watch and listen

Here you can enjoy some audio-visual documentation of my projects. For more content, you can follow the various
YouTube links you will bump into.

NIGHT (E)SCAPE

Video clip

This videography project was made in collaboration
with Michal Gryco.

For the single songs, you can jump to my YT Channel

During the creative process of this music, I had a
complementary idea to create a video clip for each
chapter. My vision was to end up with a sort of
movie that would enhance the overall musical
narrative.

PRISMI

Published by Limen Music - December 2023

Recording studio: Officine Meccaniche (Milano) – 2023

Recording, mix and mastering: Michele Forzani

PRISMI

2020-2022

My first solo album is available as digital release.
Choose your favorite streaming service.

Mobile

DUO EBANO

Blackbird (R)evolution

TRPTK 2020

Carl Maria von Weber - Gran Duo Concertante

Alban Berg - Vier Stücke op. 4

Paolo Gorini - Broken chain

Johannes Brahms - Intermezzo op. 117 n 1 (arranged for clarinet and piano)

Boris Bezemer - I Love You (for bass clarinet and Seaboard)

Gerardo Gozzi - The Underwater Life of a Bass Clarinet (for bass clarinet and Seaboard)

Info

Booklet

One of the most exilerating and fun pieces from
our Dutch Classical Talent tour was, without
doubt, the medley of Frank Zappa’s tunes made by
Andrea Chenna. Enjoy!

Live from Tivoli Vredenburg (Utrecht) January
2020

Concert recordings

Other Video recordings

Other Audio/Video recordings

SHI

Opera by Carlo Boccadoro and libretto by Cecilia Ligorio

Live from Teatro Rossi - Macerata - 2017

Video recording available here

Through out my career I had the pleasure to work with inspiring musicians and composers.

In this section you can enjoy some published and unpublished recordings of my collaborations.

In the hot summer of Macerata (IT) I spent almost one month
working as corepetitor and ensemble pianist for this intriguing and
challenging opera production.

More info about the project: EMA VINCI contemporanea

Effervesce

by Gregory Glancey

for flute and piano (with Rogier Pijper)

Ravello Records - 2023

Fossils

by Arnold Marinissen

for piano and live electronics

Concertello records - 2021

Composer and performer Arnold Marinissen invited me to record his
new piece for piano and live-electronics, how exciting!

This piece is part of his PhD research around the composition of
concert music in the Digital Workstation environment.

Rogier Pijper is the reference point in The Netherlands when it comes
to extended techniques on flute. I was honoured to receive his
invitation to record Effervesce by Gregory Glancey (member of the
Berkley University faculty). His music is very dynamic and colourful, I
never heard the flute making such sounds! The piano part is
challenging but fun, with a thoughtful use of extended techniques
inside the instrument.

A Self-portrait (with Anatsui in the background)

Music by Silvia Borzelli

for prepared piano

Ecce Homo

CidneOn Light Festival 2018

Castello di Brescia

Project by: Scena Urbana

Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared Piano, No.1

This must have been the craziest project I
have been involved so far: playing upside
down!

The reaction of the audience was priceless.

“We’re asking the musicians to reinvent their
skills, or to use their skills to make new
gestures or forms that are not part of their
standard vocabulary,” the artists have said.
“And this idea of re-skilling doesn’t end with
the performer. The public is asked to re-skill
its way of viewing.”

I am involved in other kinds of work besides playing the piano, writing music, and having long-term artistic collaborations. I come to
realise that having a variety of activities is remarkably healthy within a creative career. Even though the rabbit hole of the imagination is
luring and exhilarating, you don't want to lose yourself beyond recovery!

Arrangements

Translating a score into a new one is a delicate job. It involves understanding the composer's original intention while delivering a result in
line with the client's wishes. It is still a creative process, yet a slightly different one involving problem-solving and an inventive attitude.

Leonard Bernstein - Suite from “West Side Stories”

for saxophones, violin, cello and piano

Aaron Copland - 12 Songs of Emily Dickinson

for voice, violin, cello, clarinet and piano

for clarinet and piano

other works

Education

Some wise person once said: "Sharing is caring".

I have been a piano teacher at the British School of
Amsterdam since 2022. It is priceless to see the joy in
the young pupils' eyes when they start making music.

Chamber Music coaching

Thanks to my Master's degree in Chamber Music, I
have played and seen many scores and worked with
countless different groups.

I offer coaching sessions to young groups that want to
further explore the subtle nuances of the chamber
music repertoire.

Curious? Get in touch!

Agenda

Electronic Press Kit

Contacts

Management & Booking

scurani.management

Sandra Scurani: email / +39 347 30 69 766

© Paolo Gorini 2025