Bio
Born in Verona (Italy), Tommaso Saturnia is a composer and pianist. He was the recipient of the 2024 SFCM President’s Award for Academic Achievement and Leadership. Tommaso’s works have been commissioned and performed by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP), Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Kurdish soprano Pervin Chakar, MP Saxophone Quartet, Telegraph String Quartet, Agorart Ensemble, among others, and festivals and institutions such as MUSE in Trento (IT), MART in Rovereto (IT), ArtZenter in San Francisco, Flute New Music Consortium, FiastraFantasy, ReligionToday Film Festival, Montelago Celtic Festival, Orchestra Haydn Trento-Bolzano, Riccardo Zandonai Foundation, Euregio Klassika. As a pianist, he performed all around Italy, where he won several awards in national and international competitions. Most recently, he was the winner of the 2024 Pankonin Award (with a project led by composer Theo Popov).
His research interests focus on film music, especially around the figure of Ennio Morricone and his impact on the movie industry and the Italian cultural scene. In the past few years, he joined the GATM 2021 conference with a work on Vaughan Williams’s “Pastoral” Symphony, and “ADueVoci” festival in 2023 with a talk on Scriabin’s preludes Op. 74.
In October 2021, his chamber opera INGENIUM, for three soloists and chamber ensemble, produced by the State Conservatory of Trento, was premiered in Trento and Riva del Garda.
Tommaso studied Piano Performance at the Verona State Conservatory (BM ’15, MM ’18) and composition at the Trento State Conservatory (BM ’22). In 2024 he earned his MM in Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Currently, he is a PhD pre-candidate in Musicology at the University of Michigan.
