(21 September 2017) “Star Sound: Astronomy and Music in the Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen” is the title of the conference that Massimiliano Viel, composer and sound designer, will hold on Saturday October 23rd at 15:00 at the Goethe-Institut of Tokyo. The conference, moderated by Professor Chōki Seiji, a musicologist and faculty of the University of Tokyo, was organised by the Italian Institute of Culture and by the Goethe-Institut. The theme is the relation between music and outer space. In the first part of the conference will illustrate the possible aesthetic and technical relation between music and scientific data collected by observation of the cosmos. And in the second part will explore how German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen envisioned and realized this relationship in works such as Tierkreis (Zodiac), Sternklang (Sound of Stars), and Sirius. Massimiliano Viel has collaborated with ensembles and orchestras such as Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Symphonic Orchestra of the WDR, and the Paris Orchestra. He has also collaborated with composers by the likes of Luciano Berio, Fausto Romitelli, Luca Francesconi, Peter Eötvos, and Karlheinz Stockhausen with whom he recorded two albums. (Red)

HIS WORKS

Massimiliano Viel has composed more than fifty pieces for both acoustic and electronic instruments, for solo pieces and compositions for orchestra that have been performed in more than 15 countries. He has also composed for theatre installations and performances, visual arts, and dance. In 2001, he joined the Italian artistic collective Otolab with which he creates audiovisual performances. He currently teaches at the “Giuseppe Verdi” conservatory of Milan and is the author of several books in the fields of musical theory, sound studies, and teaching.