Ezio Bosso was an Italian composer, pianist and double bass player, and conductor. He composed film scores such as Un amore and Gabriele Salvatores' Io non ho paura, and ballets which were performed by The Royal Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet, among others. As a pianist, he released a solo album which entered the Italian charts.
Life
Born in Turin in 1971, Bosso learned to read and play music before he was four. At the age of 14 he became the bass player for the ska/rhythm-and-blues band Statuto. He then focused on classical music, and performed as a double bass player with orchestras including the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Bosso later abandoned popular music in order to become an orchestral conductor and classical composer, studying composition and conducting at the Wiener Musikakademie. He scored Gianluca Maria Tavarelli's Un amore and Gabriele Salvatores' Io non ho paura. In 2011, after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor, Bosso started suffering from a neurodegenerative syndrome. At first the disease did not prevent him from playing, composing and conducting music. He wrote ballet music, film scores, four symphonies, concertante music, and chamber music including quartets, piano trios and sonatas. He collaborated with soloists such as Mario Brunello and Sergei Krylov, and conducted orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra. His compositions were featured in various performance art events, and theatrical productions. He also collaborated with theatre directors such as James Thiérrée and choreographers such as Rafael Bonachela. On 30 October 2015 Bosso released his first solo studio album, . A collection of piano works including Bosso's own Piano Sonata, as well as music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Christoph Willibald Gluck and John Cage's In a landscape, the album peaked at number three on the Italian FIMI albums chart, along with Adele and Coldplay. Some of Bosso's music for piano was compared to the work of Philip Glass. In 2016 Bosso's music was used by the Royal Ballet for Christopher Wheeldon's Within the Golden Hour, which was first performed by the San Francisco Ballet. He also worked for La Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice, and received commissions from the Vienna State Opera, New York City Ballet and Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. From 2017, he started focusing more on conducting and composing. In September 2019, Bosso announced that due to his neurodegenerative illness he was losing the control of two fingers and was therefore no longer able to play the piano. Bosso died in his home in Bologna on 15 May 2020 at the age of 48 after a long struggle with his illness.
Awards
Bosso won several awards for his compositions, including the Australian Green Room Award and the Syracuse NY Award, and was nominated for two David di Donatello Awards.
