Francesco Leineri
Francesco Leineri
Francesco Leineri

Artistic profile

Francesco Leineri (Palermo, 1990) graduated with high marks in Composition from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and has refined his style over the years through studies in orchestra conducting, electronic music and performing arts.

As a composer inclined towards multidisciplinary approaches, he has developed a language strongly connected to storytelling, inspired from hyper-traditional musical forms and renewing them through performing arts. He works across various media including theatre, concert halls, museums and unconventional urban settings, often incorporating visuals, working with field recordings, site-specific elements, songwriting, soundtrack, installations and other artistic features.

Thanks to the versatility of his style, he has worked with public institutions, foundations and private productions, receiving commissions and collaborating with Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, RomaEuropa Festival, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, RAI Radio 3, Sanremo Festival, Ikon Gallery, Culture Roma, Sardegna Teatro and ANAD Silvio d'Amico, among others.

His works have been welcomed in Italy, France, Germany, The Czech Republic, Switzerland, United States, Mexico, India, and Ecuador. His scores are published by Ermes404.

For "having developed over the years a very diverse fields of interest - from chamber music to opera, with great attention to the most innovative aspects of performing arts - and for his brilliant trajectory during which he has distinguished himself for the quality of his work, the variety of his interests, and the seriousness of his professional commitment," since 2022 he has been welcomed as a composer member of the association Nuova Consonanza in Rome.

Education

Graduated in Composition (institutional course, grade 9.5/10) from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome under the supervision of Maestro Matteo D’Amico. During his training years, he enriched his cultural background through courses and workshops (Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Nuova Consonanza), as well as through academic studies in poetic and dramatic literature, poetry for music, history of liturgy and Gregorian chant, organ, piano, music history and aesthetics. He studied orchestra conducting with Maestro Gianluigi Zampieri and Maestro Francesco Lanzillotta, delving into the symphonic and operatic repertoire. He was awarded a scholarship for the MAP_PA master's program in performing arts at Mattatoio/PalaExpo/ABA Rome.

Theatre, opera

In the field of drama, "A come Antigone" for ensemble and four actors was directed by Tonino Battista and the PMCE premiered at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone in 2014: the music is composed in parallel with a personal dramaturgical reinterpretation of the myth by Sophocles, Brecht, Anouilh and Maria Zambrano. The stage music for the show "84 gradini" by Giuseppe Mortelliti - finalist at the Roma Fringe Festival 2014 - debuted at the Spreckels Theatre in San Diego (California) and at the Estaciòn Teatro in Tijuana (Mexico). He has collaborated with the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica Silvio d’Amico on several works, including the stage music for "La cocciutaggine" by Dante Antonelli (2013). He has also collaborated live-on-stage with various actors including Andrea Cosentino, Giandomenico Cupaiuolo, Tiziano Panici, Francesca Reggiani and Chiara Francini. In 2021, he collaborated as a composer for the rehearsals of Lucia Calamaro’s "Darwin inconsolabile". In the field of physical theatre and dance, he collaborated with the choreographer Chiara Taviani (“How to perfectly hide", ERT/Balletto Civile, 2023) and also with Giovanni Firpo/Officine Montecristo: the stage music for the mask show "Dreams of dreams" (2014) was composed and performed by him for a vast live set of toy and keyboard instruments, also in Münich (Uwe - Der festival, 2015), Thrissur (India, ITFOK2017), Brno (Setkani/Encounter 2016) - place where Francesco received a special mention from the jury “for his musical composition and its interpretation on the stage as a fundamental element". His first opera, "La bestia dentro" (2019), was performed at Carrozzerie N.O.T in Rome by the Musica Necessaria ensemble under his direction, and was later reprised at Spazio Rossellini (Rome) for its publication by the Ermes404 publishing house and subsequent airing on Rai Radio3 Suite - Il cartellone. "Fitzcarraldo", a boat opera performance for choir, soloists, ensemble, and electronics, was created in collaboration with the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and performed on the Tiber River in 2022 and 2023.

Cinema, visual arts, performance

In the field of soundtrack, he worked for documentarian Sandra Dolani, composing the soundtracks for "Brothers" and "The Last Child", documentaries produced by Amnesty International Italy and France. He played the soundtrack for the film "Io, Braga e il violoncello" by Giuliano Braga. He also composed the soundtrack for the Piano City Palermo 2018 advertisement for Just Marìa. In 2019, he participated in Buenos Aires at "In tempo rubato", a documentary by Francesco Cordio on the history of the Italo-Argentinian composer Rodolfo Zanni (1901-1927).

He created the sound environment for the installation "Burqarium", curated by Lorenzo Montanini, exhibited at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnica in Milan in 2017. He wrote an arrangement of Paul Simon's "The sound of silence" for percussion for "Joint is out of time" (2019) at the Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna in Rome. As a singer and organist, he participated in Ragnar Kjartansson's installation "The sky in a room" for the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi in Milan (2020) and for the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham (2022).

In 2021, he debuted at the RomaEuropa festival with "12 MOTIVI", a solo video-installation concert, which was later replicated for Invisible Cities in Gorizia in 2022 and for Sponde Sonore at the Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa in Palermo in 2023. Since 2019, he has been steadily collaborating in Rome with the festival La città ideale in search of new forms of music appreciation in urban and suburban contexts: the 99 variations on Nessun Dorma, a traveling musical performance with a piano on a truck; Music Market Box, a living jukebox for electric organ, violin, and accordion installed at the Mercato Insieme in Centocelle; and Opera Taxi, a living radio installed on a car that traces the history of opera from the 1600s to the present day, featuring mezzo-soprano, toy piano, and electronics.

Pop, mainstream

His production of pop music, both live and in the studio, is the result of direct contacts with artists as well as long-term collaborations with labels or recording studios. He has worked on the theatrical tour "Bu bu suite" for La Rappresentante di Lista, writing arrangements for a small chamber orchestra, and on "L'essenziale", a rewrite for string trio and toys of Italian music hits from the 60s, with Flavia Massimo (cello) and Irida Gjergij (viola). He is featured in the discography of Morgan con la I ("21 Metri, 2012), Carmine Torchia ("Affetti con note a margine", 2015), Roberta Cartisano ("Killing Cartisano vol. 1”, 2018), Fanoya ("Generazione sushi", 2019), Beercock ("Human rites", 2020) and Freak Out String Quintet.

In 2023, he appeared on the fourth evening of the 73rd Sanremo Festival, accompanying co-host Chiara Francini in two performances, writing for the orchestra and for a live-on-stage performance.

Choral and instrumental music

His compositions have been premiered at events such as “Appunti di viaggio” at Teatro La Darsena in Switzerland; Premio Internazionale della Fisarmonica in Castelfidardo; 14° Encuentro Guitarra Desde los Andes in Riobamba, Ecuador; CONTRO - Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome; Assoli - Accademia Filarmonica Romana; Iuc - Concerti alla Sapienza in Rome; Mugellini Festival, Potenza Picena (MC). His interest in aleatoric music has led him to perform frequently in free improvisation concerts for solo piano. This attitude is also reflected in the album "Se son ciechi fioriranno" (2013) released by Almendra Music.

In the field of choral music, since 2020 he has been the director of the Roma Rainbow Choir, the LGBTQIE+ choir of the Circolo di cultura omosessuale Mario Mieli. He conducts the workshop "Polifonie urbane" curated by Margine Operativo and the co-creation music laboratory of Piccolo Coro of Istituto Comprensivo Regina Margherita in Rome. In collaboration with the Assessor for Social Policies of Roma Capitale and Music International Compound, in 2023 he conducted a new Italian version, orchestrated by him, of "Wir bauen eine stadt" by Paul Hindemith for wind quintet, in collaboration with poet Marco Bisanti and the children's choir of IC Casalatti 259 at the Acquario Romano. L’Orchestrina (2013), the Free Music Factory (2016), and Musica Necessaria (2019) are his experiments in ensemble music, collectives of musicians who have collaborated within his productions, under his direction.

Francesco Leineri
Francesco Leineri

Francesco Leineri graduated with high marks in Composition (institutional course, grade 9.5/10) from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome under the supervision of Maestro Matteo D’Amico. He has also refined his style over the years through studies in orchestra conducting, electronic music and performing arts.

As a composer inclined towards multidisciplinary approaches, he has developed a language strongly connected to storytelling, inspired from hyper-traditional musical forms and renewing them through performing arts. He works across various media including theatre, concert halls, museums and unconventional urban settings, often incorporating visuals, working with field recordings, site-specific elements, songwriting, soundtrack, installations and other artistic features.

Thanks to the versatility of his style, he has worked with public institutions, foundations and private productions, receiving commissions and collaborating with Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, RomaEuropa Festival, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, RAI Radio 3, Sanremo Festival, Ikon Gallery, Culture Roma, Sardegna Teatro and ANAD Silvio d'Amico, among others.

His works have been welcomed in Italy, France, Germany, The Czech Republic, Switzerland, United States, Mexico, India, and Ecuador.

His scores are published by Ermes404.

For "having developed over the years a very diverse fields of interest - from chamber music to opera, with great attention to the most innovative aspects of performing arts - and for his brilliant trajectory during which he has distinguished himself for the quality of his work, the variety of his interests, and the seriousness of his professional commitment," since 2022 he has been welcomed as a composer member of the association Nuova Consonanza in Rome.

Francesco Leineri