The IDB Cultural Center cordially invites you to attend an illustrated lecture with the Italian composer and Artistic Director of the Bologna Opera House NICOLA SANI

Like a wave of force and light/Como una ola de fuerza y luz: Mutual Influences Between Latin America and Italy in 20th Century Avant-garde Music

The relationship between the Italian and Latin American musical avant-garde constitutes an important yet rarely documented chapter of the music of our times. Political and social developments in Latin America - from Cuba to Argentina, Brazil to Chile - led to the creation of new schools of thought, and these left significant traces on the history of avant-garde music during the second half of the 20th century.

An extremely fertile exchange between exponents of these two different social backgrounds had an enormous impact on composers. The Italian tradition constituted a strong attraction for many Latin Americans and gave life to significant experiments. In turn, popular Latin American music contained influential references for avant-garde Italian music, leading to innovative musical forms, new technologies and multimedia.

Maestro Sani will outline the determinant encounters between composers from the "two Worlds", define the focus of the protagonists and their most important works, and discuss what new generations of composers in both regions have inherited from this exchange.

After the lecture you are invited to tour the Cultural Center exhibition, Latin American Artists of Italian Descent,in the Cultural Center Art Gallery, and enjoy a vin d'honneur in the Bank atrium with Maestro Sani.

Nicola Sani was born in Ferrara, Italy in 1961, and studied composition with Domenico Guaccero and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He is the author of a large number of instrumental and electro acoustic compositions, stage operas, dance operas, video art, and multimedia installations commissioned, produced, and performed by internationally renowned institutions, ensembles, and soloists within the most important seasons and festivals worldwide. His music is recorded on CD and DVD and broadcast worldwide.

From 2006-2009 he was a Board member and then became Artistic Director of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (Rome's Opera House). He is currently Artistic Advisor and designated Artistic Director for 2012 of Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Bologna's Opera House). Since October 2004 Nicola Sani has been President of the Isabella Scelsi Foundation in Rome, dedicated to the cultural heritage of composer Giacinto Scelsi. He is the recipient of the Giuseppe Verdi International Prize, the Guggenheim Award, the Erato-Farnesina Prize of the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Prix Italia First Prize at the Locarno Video Art Festival, First Prize at the International Tokyo Electronic Film Festival, First Prize Prix Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria; and First Prize RAI Composition Competition.

This event is presented in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy.

The lecture will be in English, and held at the Enrique V. Iglesias Auditorium, Inter-American Development Bank. Free and open to the public. Photo ID required.