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biography Maurizio was born the 1st of May 1959 in Ghedi, Brescia province, Lombardy, Italy. He has no siblings. As a kid, he travels different artistic ways, including drawing and stage arts. For the latter he shows natural skills that will influence his whole life. After various collages with rough 70’s tape recorders, in 1976 he buys his first $50 guitar. It’s love at first sight. The same year, he wins the first prize at the Comics Swiss Omega National Contest. On one single page he describes the birth of a new planet till its destruction by its inhabitants corrupted by greed. In 1978 , he enjoys great success for his part of the "small one" in the play "In Deep Sea", by Slawomir Mrozek, in which three men lost on a raft try to convince each other that he must get eaten in order to save the other two. In 1980 - 1981 , he travels through West Africa on a 304 Peugeot. The reason of this act can be found in Alessandro Baricco's quote : "Naturally we go to school, every day. But this is a story of disheartning deterioration, and useless oppression. It has nothing to do with what we feel to define life." In 1981, he spends a few months in Stoke-on-Trent, England, then he’s hired as the official musician of The Childrens Theatre of Lausanne (TPEL), with whom he’ll travel for a memorable tour in the Ivory Coast, (35 shows in 40 days). Costumed as a troubadour, he plays guitar in order to make dance and come back to life a cursed puppet. In 1982, in the attempt to reach Japan by land, he stops in Cairo, Egypt, where he founds a theater company, le Théâtre Brûle, with whom he’ll create a stage show inspired by Tristan Tzara’s “L’Homme Approximatif”: “En Nous rit l’Abîme”. In the meantime, he plays guitar with Georges Kazazian’s jazz-rock band “Exit”, meets Sun Ra and Pat Patrick and plays in Cairo’s bars with the musicians of Yussef Chahine’s movies. In 1984, back in Switzerland, he enters the Montreux Jazz School, with teachers Claude Buri, Leonzio Cherubini and Thierry Lang. There he meets the pianist Alberto Vazquez with whom he starts a long musical partnership. In 1987, he enters professionnal classes of music writing at the Conservatoire de Lausanne, where he studies with, among others, Jean Balissat, The studies culminate with a Superiors Diplomas in Analysis, Counterpoint and Music Theory. In 1989, he gets back on stage in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet directed by swiss director Denis Maillefer. In the meantime, in 1991, he writes “Tappeto di Luce”, for 23 acoustic and electronic instruments and one soprano voice. This piece of “spectral” music helps him to meet many musicians and build the basis for the up and coming art music composer. In september 1993, in the middle of the Balkan War, he travels by car from Switzerland to bring some help to a family. He sings "Guerre" live on Radio Brod (Slavonski Brod). On december 31, 1993, he's invited to perform and celebrate New Year's Eve at Hugo Pratt's house, in Belmont, Switzerland, among other local and international artists. In 1994, he travels to Banaras (India) to study tabla with the great master Ishwarlal Mishra. He’ll go back for many years to improve his playing. In 1996, on the request of fellow student and virtuoso saxophonist Laurent Estoppey, he writes “Towards”, for saxophone and piano. It very soon turns out to be a successful piece which will be recorded on a compilation of “New Music for Saxophone and Piano” (1998, Doron Music). This piece will give birth to a play written and directed by swiss italian director Luca Spadaro, called "Titania o i segreti dell'amore". Having been writing songs since he was a teenager and performing them on stage since the early 90's, comes the time to give this activity a more precise form, leading to three albums (1998: Etrange Etranger, 2000: Paul Gauguin, 2007: Dans le Compartiment des Jours – RecRec). In 1999, he writes “Petite Valse”, for piano and sax. In 2001, “En Suspension”, for guitar. In 2002 he starts studying sitar in Banaras with Anand Mishra. In 2003, “Sur Le Fil”, for solo sax. In 2004, « La Roue de Fortune », (Wheel of Fortune) for septet. In 2005, « Agar », for sax and percussion, and « Sept Miroirs », for piano. In 2007, he records a compilation of the above works with the “Compagnie CH.AU” (Antonio Albanese, guitar, Peter Baumann, percussion, Valérie Bernard, violin, Laurent Estoppey, sax, Virginie Falquet, piano, Aurélien Ferrette, cello and Nelly Flückiger, bassoon). In 2011, “Marelle”, for two saxophones, “Premier Miroir”, for sax and piano, “Ricochet” for sax and piano (version 1) and for two saxophones (version 2). In 2011 also , he gives his voice, recorded for the occasion, to Fernando Nannetti, for the Lausanne's Musée de l'Art brut's exhibition on the man, known for an enormous graffiti he carved into the cement of an outside wall of the psychiatric institution in Volterra, Italy, where he was hospitalized. In 2012, "Sous l'eau sourde", for two saxophones. From 2011, the pieces for two sax have been performed in the USA by Laurent Estoppey and Steve Stusek. Nov. 2012 - Jan. 2013, "In the Tree of Hope" for saxophone and orchestra, premiered on april 21, 2013, in Cherokee, IA, by Laurent Estoppey and the Cherokee Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lee Thorson. In 2013, "Outlau", for sax alto, premiered on april 11, 2014, in Wilmongton, NC, by Laurent Estoppey. November 2014, Lalita Mantra release, poem in 43 "chants", written in french, issued by Editions Samizdat. February 2015, release of the "Stacks" DVD, published by Vincent Capes and containing, among others, a video created by Samantha DiRosa on Ricochet. 2016, transcription of "in the Tree of Hope" for sax ensemble, premiered by Laurent Estoppey and the UNCG Saxophone Ensemble. 2017, transcription of « La Roue de Fortune" (Wheel of Fortune) for sax ensemble, premiered by Steve Stusek and the UNCG Saxophone Ensemble, in the meantime he exhibits 24 paintings at the Château d'Ollon, Switzerland, and writes "Serpentine" for barytone sax. 2018, on Steve Stusek's request he writes "Vanishing Circles", in two versions, one for sax & flute, the other for sax duo. 2019, commissionned by Laurent Estoppey for the 2019 Salzburg's Microtonal Symposium "Small is Beautiful", he writes "My Love is a Journey Without End" for alto sax solo. For the occasion, he creates a new language which will be expanded soon after in "Way High" for two saxophones. 2020, year of the Covid and subsequent lockdown : intertwining the inspiration given by the last two pieces and the genome sequences brought ahead by the pandemy, he gives birth to "The Copper in my Skin", for four alto saxophones, based on the sequence of tyrosinase, an copper-containing enzime responsable for the productionof melanin and other pigments of the human body, and "The Secret Host", for nine alto saxophones, based on the the sequence of the Wuhan identified virus. The last four pieces have been recorded by Laurent Estoppey and have their own dedicated page : Four Microtonal Pieces. 2025, "She" and "Wind Sway" are premiered in Wilmington NC by Laurent Estoppey (sop sax), Nancy King (soprano) and Rob Nathanson (guitar). Here is a link to the whole concert ("She" starts at 6'22'' and "Wind Sway" at 42'10'').
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