Michele Selva

Michele Selva graduated in 1999 at the Bruno Maderna Conservatory in Cesena with honours and, in parallel with the music activity, he graduated with honours also in philosophy with a thesis on contemporary works for musical theatre.

In these years, he has participated as student in numerous master classes held by the most important national and international saxophonists, among whom Claude Delangle and Jean-Marie Londeix.

Attentive to developments in the music of the twentieth century and contemporary music, he participated in several premières, including dedicated ones, of fundamental Italian and international composers, among whom Y. Avital, S. Bussotti, G. Cresta, G. Cappelli,  G. Dazzi, F. De Sanctis De Benedictis, D. Di Maggio, R. Doati, J. Erber, R. Febel, F. Festa, C. Gentilini, S. Hayden, A. Guarnieri, M. Laurucella, L. Lugli, L. Miti, S. Mossenmark, J. Torres Maldonado, M. Messieri, L. de Pablo, G. Pape, P. Pokorný, D. Rotaru, A. Skurtavy, M. Viel. Worth mentioning is also the collaboration, also at a musicological level, with the poet Edoardo Sanguineti.

He was invited by various universities (such as IULM Milano, University of Bologna, University of San Marino, Goldsmiths University, Trinity Laban College), national conservatories and conferences to give lectures and master classes on music of the twentieth century and contemporary music (in particular on contemporary techniques and on the musical thought of G. Scelsi and J. Cage).

He regularly performs concerts and recitals at major music festivals and institutions in Italy and abroad (among others Festival Angelica, Area Sismica, Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte di Montepulciano, Emufest-Roma, Festival Eterotopie, Verona Contemporanea, Biennale di Venezia, Biennale dei Giovani artisti del Mediterraneo, Oh-Ton Festival, Goteborg Art Sound, Forfest Festival, Winter Festival) and he performed in France, Spain, Germany (Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Weimar, Dresden, Oldenburg) and cities like Copenhagen, Krakow, Kromeriz, London, Goteborg, Prague, Sarajevo.

He has participated with particular public and critical success in the Cardew Ensemble project focusing his attention on the thought and on the electroacoustic realisation of original graphic and "open" scores (among others by J. Cage, C. Cardew, C. Wolff).

In 2007 and 2009 with the duo Messieri / Selva he released the CDs Noises X and Masken for saxophone and electronics (with music by T. Riley and important "first recordings" of Italian composers).  

Since 2017 he has been the musical director of the annual Dolomiti Open event that combines mountain and mountaineering with musical performance at high altitude (he recently performed from the Campanile Basso, Cima Prati, Torre d’Ambiez and Brenta Bassa in the Brenta Dolomites).

For USMA Radio of the University of the Republic of San Marino, he is the presenter and artistic director of the radio broadcast "Musica Come Pratica dell’Impossibile" dealing with monographs (among whom Xenakis, Nono, Scelsi, Cage, Feldman) and the spreading of contemporary musical languages.

As a saxophonist of the Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of San Marino, he has performed some of the most important and original symphonic works for saxophone and, in terms of chamber music, he has collaborated with major national and international ensembles and soloists. He is professor of saxophone at San Marino Music Institute.