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Photo: Louise Courtney

Mark Viggiani

Composer Biography

Born Melbourne, 1968.

Viggiani has been active as a composer and classical guitarist since the early 1990s.

His most recent work has been driven by a long held fascination with early twentieth century blues and folk music. To this end he has combined these influences with contemporary techniques to create a distinctively personal style, most recently in the Field Holler series, so far comprising works for trombone and piano, violin and guitar, choir and orchestra.

In 2008, Viggiani completed a Masters of Music in Composition at the Melbourne University Conservatorium, with Stuart Greenbaum and Elliott Gyger. During his candidature, he also undertook lessons in Torino with Giulio Castagnoli and attended masterclasses at the Venice Biennale. He also participated in the Tasmania Symphony Orchestra 2008 Composers School, with mentoring from Richard Mills, Andrew Schultz, Gerald Brophy and Kenneth Young, producing the work Lomax Sketches. Other significant recent compositions include One Last Tango for Symphony Australia's 2010 Composer Development Workshop, Magenta, which was recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Der Munitionsfabriken, composed for Speak Percussion and premiered at the Big West Festival in 2007.

Viggiani has created a large body of guitar music including solos, mixed ensemble pieces including a Concertino for guitar and strings. Black Cat Tango, in its various forms, has received much radio play in Australia and Europe. It has been arranged for Amsterdam-based guitar duo Z.O.O. Duo, who recorded the work on A Sympathetic Resonance in 1998. He has also enjoyed success as a performer in his own right, releasing a CD of original compositions The Rainmaker on Move Records to international critical acclaim.

Viggiani was invited to compose for The Song Company as part of Modart05, for which he created Some Common Prayers set to texts by Michael Leunig. He conducted the Melbourne Camerata at the inaugural Melbourne Classical Guitar Festival (2009) in a program of contemporary guitar ensemble music. Other recent performances include engagements in 2002 at the Darwin International Guitar Festival, where Show was premiered, and the Brunswick Music Festival, where he presented a program of original guitar solo works and duos with Anthony Field.

He currently tutors in music theory, composition and orchestration at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium and also teaches classical guitar. In 2009 Viggiani began a PhD. in music composition with the assistance of an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA).

Mark Viggiani — current to July 2010