Daria Scia is an Italian composer and pianist renowned for her innovative approach to contemporary classical music. Residing at the American Academy in Rome as the 2025 Marcello Lotti Italian Fellow in Music this past November and December, she began to develop a composition inspired by the writing of Flannery O’Connor, exploring themes of grace and human duality. She completed her studies at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan and further refined her craft through advanced courses at the S. Cecilia Academy in Rome and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. Her compositions, performed by ensembles such as Syntax, Mdi, and Schallfeld reflect a profound interest in vocality and the exploration of primordial sounds, often drawing inspiration from natural phenomena and emotional energies. In 2022, she received the “In Memory of Giorgio Federico Ghedini” award at the Chigiana Academy.
AAR reconnected with Scia after her departure at the end of 2024.
What did you work on while at AAR?
During my stay at the AAR, I worked on some sketches for new piano pieces and on a solo piano piece that was performed by Jacopo Petrucci on February 27 as part of the concerts of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana. At the same time, I began the project that I proposed for this residency: selecting and analyzing short stories by the American writer Flannery O’Connor. In this case, I explored the relationship between music and text by analyzing the evolution of the text’s dramatic-structural and tension-building elements, aiming to trace the so-called “invisible plots” of the “spiritual movement” that O’Connor herself discusses in Mystery and Manners.
Unlike many residencies, where most of the work and daily life are solitary, community life at the Academy actively influenced my reflections, and certain daily processes and mechanisms became an integral part of my work and the inner dialogue that accompanied my creative process.
Did your project change after arriving?
The project didn’t change—it began. The path I am tracing contains points of interest and research themes that I feel will accompany me for the rest of my life. Among the research objectives, I plan to compose three new pieces for different ensembles between 2025 and 2026. I am very curious about the upcoming works—I remain open to the possibility of surprise; it brings me deep joy, and I hope to share this second phase of the journey on other occasions.
What was your most surprising discovery?
Living at AAR was an immersive experience that completely engaged me. The greatest discovery was experiencing, on a deep level, the way certain aspects of artistic research came to life and observing the correlation and interdependence between these and my presence and interactions in the Academy’s spaces and community.
What did you see in the city of Rome that made a strong impression on you?
I have often been to Rome, in various roles and for different reasons, but during this period, I could not help but perceive even more vividly and clearly—also witnessing the city’s new projects in preparation for the Jubilee—how Rome keeps all the layers of its past alive in the most current present, and how it projects itself into the future with the same force as the time that flows through it.
In this sense, as a representation of immanence in the making, it is the Eternal City. I found this vision of the city, seen through its unique characteristics, very close to a possible compositional approach. I greatly enjoy observing things or events in the world and reimagining them musically.
How did your interactions with this year’s fellows and residents influence your work or change your perspective?
Interacting with the fellows and residents has profoundly enriched me as both a person and an artist. It is truly a rare opportunity to live in close contact with such a talented and highly sensitive community. Having shared spaces and activities fostered friendships and discussions on topics of common interest. Being in resonance with one’s surroundings can only amplify, in all its forms, one’s artistic practice and self-perception within it. Everyone should have the chance to experience such a state of beauty.
Engaging with other artists on the different phases of the creative act was highly stimulating—an even stronger invitation to seek and reinvent oneself in authentic freedom.
How did your conceptions of the Academy change over the course of the fellowship?
My first memory of the Academy is the sound of water. A continuous murmur, from the fountain at the entrance to the one at the center of the cortile. I could not find that music again, except by seeking refuge in memory. Who would have expected such a wonder?
Everything is unique and constantly transforming into a new uniqueness; when things seem known, it means that something special is being taken for granted. I began my residency with no specific expectations or prejudices, only with great openness. This allowed me to observe and experience events naturally and uniquely, in a state of continuous listening and dialogue with my artistic research themes.
Many events became material for reflection or musical-compositional exploration, and now everything converges and resonates in my memory as something new and unprecedented. That sound of water was different each time I experienced it, relating to my first memory in a uniquely distinct way, with greater or lesser intensity. This manifestation of sound is one of the ways in which music turns time into space. A space in memory that takes shape through events over time and relates them to the whole. In this sense, my conceptions of the Academy did not change; rather, they took shape over time alongside my work. They are still evolving in my actions and in my reminiscences.
What is happening in the next few months for you?
In the coming months, I will continue the work I started at the Academy and begin other writing projects. I recently finished composing pieces for the pianist Maria Flavia Cerrato, and more solo works will follow, which I had already started planning last year. At the end of May, I will begin drafting one of the first pieces of the project I started at AAR.
AAR reconnected with the composer Daria Scia after spending two months at the Academy as the 2025 Marcello Lotti Italian Fellow in Music.