Franco donatoni biography

Franco Donatoni was born June 9th 1927 in Verona, Italy. He studied composition with Ettore Desderi at the ‘Guiseppe Verdi’ Conservatory in Milano, with Battista Martini in Bologna and with Ildebrando Pizzetti at the ‘Academia Nazionale di S.

Cecilia’ in Roma. He attended the ‘Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik’ at Darmstadt, Germany in 1954, 1956, 1958 and 1961. As a violinist he held a position at the orchestra of ‘Arena di Verona’.

Donatoni was honoured with multiple awards, amongst others ‘Prix de Liège’ in 1951, ‘Prix de Radio Luxembourg’ in 1951 and 1953, ‘Prix de la société internationale pour la musique contemporaine’ in 1961, ‘Marzotto’-prize in 1966, ‘Koussevitsky’-prize in 1968 and a ‘Psacaropoulo’-prize in 1979.

In 1985 he received a knighthood in the ‘Orde des Arts et des Lettres’ by the French Minister