Activity as an academic

Riccardo Riccardi held the Chair of Composition at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence from 1988 to 2012 and at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome from 2012 to 2021. He has also served as Professor of Composition in the Florence Program of New York University from 2008 to 2012 and as Professor of Music Appreciation at Saint Mary’s College (Notre Dame, Indiana) in their Rome Program from 1998 to 2013.

He also taught the History of Italian Music, Opera Literature, and Opera Workshop at the University Studies Abroad Consortium of Tuscia University in Viterbo from 2011 to 2014.

From 1988 to 1991 he produced educational programs for the Radio Nacional de España (Panorama de la joven música italiana) and for Radio 3, Italian National Radio, (Quaderni d’orchestrazione). Since 1994 he has been a visiting professor in colleges across the United States, in California, Arizona, Indiana, New York and Maryland. He has taught master classes in Ireland, Spain, Hungary, Poland and Panama.

Interdisciplinary meetings

In 1985 he was the creator, speaker and coordinator of a series of meetings entitled, “Nei dintorni della musica”, at the Teatro Italia in Rimini. The topics dealt with included – The Structure and Form of Language, Math and Architecture, Serial Music and Chance, Jazz and the Cinema – all of them have music as their common denominator.

In 1998 he was the creator, speaker and coordinator of L’isola delle idee, a series of open classes in collaboration with three institutions in Florence: the University (Faculty of Architecture, Faculty of Letters and Philosophy), the Cherubini Conservatory and the Academy of Fine Arts. The twenty-four meetings dealt with: aesthetics, poetics, poetry, art, architecture, theatre, scenography, stagecraft, theatrical mechanisms, costumes, opera, dance, video art, cinema, film music, installations, staging, ethnomusicology, the Orient.

In 2000 he was the speaker for Dietro all’opera d’arte: la musica e le arti figurative, a cycle of lectures at the G.Masina and F. Fellini Open University in Rimini. In this series, he analyzed the psychology of creativity in both music and the figurative arts. His analysis delved into the concept of form, a concept that unites painting, architecture and music throughout the course of history.

Cultural organizations

From 2014 to 2016 he was artistic director of the Accademia Culturale Linguistica Educativa in Bajardo, Italy for which he planned theatrical and musical performances. Then in 2016 he conceived and planned the Anno per Anno festival at the Museum of Rome, Palazzo Braschi. On this occasion he was also curator of the show, Shakespearean Monologues, for which he chose texts by Shakespeare and commissioned music from five composers.

From 2016 to 2021 he was responsible for relationships between the Americas and the “Santa Cecilia” Conservatory in Rome. In this capacity he managed collaborations with both Panama and the Oregon Music Festival in the United States.

Since 2022 he has been Director of International Projects at the International Center for Contemporary Music in London.

Fellowships and awards

1980 He was one of the circle of the winners of the Rassegna Internazionale della Filarmonica Umbra, with his Quartetto per sette strumenti a fiato.

1983 He received the Composer’s Award at the 21st Southwestern Youth Music Festival with his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.

1987 He was awarded “honorable mention” at the Premio Città di Castelfidardo with his Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra.

1995 He was chosen by the California State University as Italian liaison for the project: Exploration of Musical Traditions – A Program of Cultural Cooperation between the United States and Italy.

2009 He received a Grant from the Center for Academic Innovation – Indiana for his opera Talk Show.

2014 He was the Nancy Unobskey Visiting Artist in Modern and Contemporary Art at the Goucher College, Towson – Maryland.

Since 2021 he has been a member of the Creative Circle of the International Centre for Contemporary Music, London.