Riccardo Castagnola (Bologna, IT, 1988)

Composer, performer, multimedia artist

His works and activities spread among electroacoustic and instrumental composition, live music and video for performance, dance and theatre, free improvisation, sound direction, sound design for film and multimedia interactive installation, analysis of electroacoustic music. All shown in international festivals (DE, UK, FR, BR, IT, GR, NL, CA, LT, LV).

He regularly cooperates with different institutions in the field of contemporary music, dance and multimedia performance, such as Schwenkhalle Bremen (DE), Ensemble New Babylon (Bremen, DE), Tanzkollektiv Bremen, Theater Bremen (DE), D’Haus Düsseldorf (DE), Theater Osnabrück (DE), Gerhard-Marks Haus (Bremen, DE), Tempo Reale (Florenz, IT) and Mezzo Forte Design (IT).


He studied Electronic Music and Composition at Conservatorio G.B. Martini (Bologna, IT) with Prof. Francesco Giomi e Prof. Lelio Camilleri and at Hochschule für Künste Bremen (DE) with Prof. Kilian Schwoon, Jörg Birkenkötter and Joachim Heinz.

2015-16 he was Meisterschüler in “Temporal Media” at the HfK Bremen (Prof. Jean-Fraçois Guiton) with focus on interactivity between sound, image and gesture.

He improved himself through workshops with international composers, performer and sound artists such as D. Smalley, B. Parmegiani, S. Sciarrino, A. Mayr, F. Bayle, P. Billone, M. Belli, A. Soto, B. Fort, F. Maheu, L. Sonami, J. O’Callaghan, R. Normandeau.

His soundtrack for the silent movie "die Leuchte Asiens" (1925, F. Osten) was screened at Berlinale Retrospektive 2018.

2017 he was finalist at the FRANZ LISZT - Scholarship (Akusmatische Komposition) in Weimar.

2018 he started the project ElekTrAktions, a multimedia electroacoustic performative series in Bremen, in cooperation with Theater SCHLACHTHOF and the support of Senator für Kultur Bremen.

Since 2018 he teaches Sound Design, Multimedia Installation and Interactive Narrative Forms at the Hochschule Bremerhaven (Digital Media Department), Multimedia Performance and Electroacoustic Composition for Digital Media at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen and Music Theory and Perception at Hochschule für Künste im Sozialen Ottersberg (DE). He regularly gives workshops about synthesizers and electroacoustic techniques for live sound in cooperation with Theater SCHLACHTHOF.

2010–2013 he was copy editor of MusicaElettronica.it, an Italian blog about experimental music and art.