Short Biography
Francesco Accolla is an Italian composer, sound designer and researcher working across theatre, film, radio, concert music, electroacoustic music and immersive performance. His career spans more than five decades, from his first professional commissions in the early 1970s to his current work in composition, sound design and artistic research.
He began composing for theatre while still in his teens. His early work was recognised by the Municipality of Rome with the Oscar dei Giovani, awarded for incidental music for productions including Otello and Alfio Valdarnini’s Caligola. During the 1970s he became active in the Roman theatrical scene, collaborating with directors including Carlo Alighiero, Aldo Trionfo, Memè Perlini and Gilberto Visentin.
Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Accolla worked across theatre, radio, television, film and recorded media. His work from this period includes RAI radio and television productions, stage music and live performance for Aldo Trionfo’s Caligola at Teatro Parioli, music for Memè Perlini’s productions including Il mercante di Venezia and Cavalleria rusticana, and the score for Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud’s feature film Traversées. He also composed music for radio drama, children’s cassette-book editions and production music, reflecting a sustained interest in the relationship between music, dramaturgy, narration and sound environments.
During the 1990s his activity increasingly embraced contemporary concert music, choral music and electroacoustic composition. Several works from this period are preserved in institutional collections, including the New York Public Library, where scores and recordings are held within the Jacob Druckman collections. During the same period, his choral work Psalm 33, for mixed choir and percussion, received an Honourable Mention in the Roger Wagner International Choral Composition Competition, Los Angeles.
In recent years his work has focused on live electronics, spatial sound, field recording and practice-based research. He is currently completing an MSc in Sound Design at Edinburgh Napier University, where his research investigates the concept of Sonic Gravity: the perceptual behaviour of sound within immersive performance environments.
His current artistic work centres on PhonoSphere – The Tale of Water, a long-term collaboration with pianist Isabella Libra that combines acoustic piano, electronics, spoken text and environmental sound into immersive performance experiences exploring memory, ecology and listening.
