Daria Scia completed her composition studies in Italy at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan and furthermore perfected them with a post-degree Master's at the Conservatory of Milan, at the S. Cecilia Academy in Rome, and at the summer courses of the Chigiana Academy in Siena. She received the “In Memory of Giorgio Federico Ghedini” award as the best enrolled student of the Chigiana Academy in 2022. In 2021-2022 she participated in a post-degree internship with tutor Beat Furrer at Klangforum Wien, and in 2023 she won the Styria-Artist-in-Residence-Scholarship 2024. Her music is performed by: Syntax Ensemble, Mdi Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Schallfeld Ensemble, Quartetto Prometeo, Quartetto Noûs, Chigiana International Festival, Festival Milano Musica, Festival Nuova Consonanza, Festival Pontino, Festival Trame Sonore, and Impuls Berlin as well as at impuls in Graz. Her works underscore a profound interest in vocality and the exploration of primordial sounds, even within her instrumental writing, and are inspired by natural phenomena and the energetic qualities of emotions. Her research is grounded in Temporal Semiotic Units and Gestalt theories. In her recent compositions, she delves into the concept of "fragility," seeking elements of instability in instrumental and vocal techniques, as well as in the formalization of structure.

My project aims to create a new composition in dialogue with works by Flannery O’Connor, through exploring the relationship between the analysis of the “energetic qualities” identified in certain works of this American writer and the development of compositional processes (e.g., forming the structure, creating local musical processes, forming and conducting selected sound material). The use of “energetic-temporal qualities” as a creative principle will be a fundamental tool to carry out a “creative translation” and to formalize the sound phenomenon, in both the conception and writing phase, not as a process deriving from a hierarchical-grammatical or mechanical structure, but as a pure “becoming of the event.” Precious themes in O’Connor’s writing, and of central inspiration to the work, will be the “wonder of Grace” and the “tension towards the dark,” the contrast between opposing elements, characteristic of the human being and his will, the utopian search for a “anagogic vision” capable of revealing different levels of the ineffable reality.

A. Musical Performance

Petra (2022)
for solo piano
Jacopo Petrucci, piano

3. Music on the stairs:

Rails (2021)
Stereo fixed media
Daria Scia, composer