Recommendation for Mr Jacopo Baboni Schilingi
It is with great pleasure that I write to recommend Mr Baboni Schilingi. I have known him since 1994, when we were participants in IRCAM’s year-long Cursus. Our shared interests in musical research, theoretical and aesthetic thought, and questions of concert presentation and organisation have given us many areas in which to collaborate throughout these years.
Mr Baboni Schilingi’s founding of the PRISMA group has made possible an ongoing exchange among some twenty researchers and composers, which has now lasted more than ten years. He organises one or two international meetings each year, providing an atmosphere of mutual learning that I have encountered nowhere else. Over five days, participants present their latest compositions, theories or research details and exchange ideas with other members of the group. After the presentations, small practical working groups form spontaneously to explore subjects in depth. Throughout these years, Mr Baboni Schilingi has maintained a friendly and stimulating atmosphere in which career concerns are set aside. He has also organised collaborations with other institutions, including the conservatories in Helsinki, Vienna and Shanghai, and Columbia University in New York, combining the group’s presentations with concerts. I have attended almost every meeting since 2001 and must stress that this is one of the most stimulating activities in my professional life.
From 2001 to 2004, Mr Baboni Schilingi and I were colleagues at the Montbéliard Conservatoire. This was our period of most intensive collaboration. In addition to his composition class, Mr Baboni Schilingi organised workshops bringing together composers, performers and students. This intensive workshop model was subsequently presented in various Latin American countries and in China.
Collaboration with outstanding musicians dedicated to performing the music of our time led Mr Baboni Schilingi to create a specialised ensemble: the Ensemble de Musique Interactive. I invited this ensemble twice to our contemporary music festival in Weimar, Germany, in 2003 and 2012. Both concerts were of extraordinary artistic quality.
Musicians working with a combination of instrumental and electronic forces often face difficult circumstances when setting up and preparing concerts. Instrumentalists often rehearse pieces as chamber music, with electronic elements added very late in the preparation period, sometimes only one or two days before the concert. This deplorable practice is unfortunately more the rule than the exception, leaving performers no opportunity to integrate the electronic part into their interpretation. Observing this situation led Mr Baboni Schilingi to establish a different working method: he organises rehearsals so that electronics are an integral part of learning the piece from the outset. Besides preparing the instrumentalists, he invests in preparing assistants, sound engineers and others so that the technical delivery meets the required standard. This demands a considerable investment of time and technical infrastructure, and I applaud his commitment in this direction, because the musical results are incomparable!
I remember concerts, such as those at GRM in 2011 and in New York in 2012, that were simply breathtaking, and audiences did not fail to recognise this.
If there is an interest in continuing musical research that combines instrumental music with electronic systems, it is essential to invest in the practical side of presentation. Mr Baboni Schilingi’s work is certainly a rare example in this field.
Mr Baboni Schilingi’s theoretical and compositional work is also remarkable. His two books, “La musique hyper-systémique” and “Six modèles d’analyse”, have engaged the professional community in a new dialogue. It is rare nowadays for a composer to pursue theoretical reflection beyond his own work. By publishing this research, Mr Baboni Schilingi has offered us a very valuable source of thought.
His music has always interested me. His search for gestural expression, directly linked to the physical aspects of instruments, produces an emotional language of great strength. I am convinced that Mr Baboni Schilingi has already had a major influence on the next generation of composers.
Looking at all his activities—teaching, music, publications, international dissemination, and the leadership of research groups and musical ensembles—we find an artist of great generosity. He can inspire his collaborators and create stimulating working environments. His diplomatic and communication skills have enabled him to negotiate concert conditions internationally that live up to his artistic vision. I strongly recommend considering his candidacy, because he has the vision and the tools to lead organisations in a way that makes everyone’s contribution useful.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Hans Tutschku
Fanny P. Mason Professor of Music
Director of the Harvard University Studio for Electroacoustic Composition [HUSEAC]