Karl Fiorini

Guildhall School of Music & Royal College of Music.

Karl Fiorini, composer. Maltese by origin, he studied at the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal College of Music. His compositions have been performed in major European cities, the United States, Japan, and Latin America. The works of Karl Fiorini are performed worldwide in the largest and most prestigious concert halls.

Karl Fiorini (born 1 December 1979) has been described as “a successor to figures such as Bartók and Shostakovich” (The Classical Reviewer) and “a composer with big ideas” (Ates Orga, The Classical Source). Fiorini’s prolific career began at the age of 10, and to date his output includes over 50 compositions, ranging from solo and chamber works to large orchestral pieces. His repertoire includes two violin concertos, four piano concertos, a cantata, two symphonies, and numerous works for orchestra with and without voice.

Born in Malta, Karl Fiorini was encouraged from an early age to pursue a career in classical music. In his homeland he studied under composers Joseph Vella and Charles Camilleri, then with Diana Burrell at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Michael Zev Gordon at the Royal College of Music in London, where he obtained a doctorate. Fiorini has received numerous scholarships and international awards, including the Garfield Weston Foundation in London (2003) for his Piano Concerto No. 2, the Janatha Stubbs Fund for Young Artists twice (2004 and 2008), and the Peter Moores Foundation in London (2006), which enabled him to pursue further studies.

Other awards include Boston’s Alea III Composition Prize for Trio Lamina for clarinet, violin, and piano in 2004, and the Luxembourg Sinfonietta Prize for Composition in 2010 (third prize) for Nachtszenen for violin and chamber ensemble. In 2005 he also received the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Prize for the vocal composition Aleamantes for soprano and piano. Fiorini has the honor of being the first Maltese composer invited to the prestigious Biennale di Venezia in 2015.

Fiorini’s early works were influenced by Mediterranean identity, still dominant in the music of his Maltese peers. However, before completing Violin Concerto No. 1 in 2007, he completely distanced himself from this trend, even more so after moving to France a year later. During this period, Fiorini began developing a rhythmic and harmonic language evident in his latest works, such as the two symphonies and de dioses y de perros (Of Gods and Dogs) for soprano, choir, and orchestra (2015). Fiorini has written several works based on literature, creating texts in Maltese, French, German, English, and Spanish. His most acclaimed work is Cadavre Exquis from 2012, featuring texts by three contemporary French, Spanish, and Maltese poets, for three voices, orchestra, and mixed media, commissioned by Ensemble Télémaque in France as part of Marseille European Capital of Culture 2013.

Fiorini’s creativity has been supported by commissions from the European Union Chamber Orchestra (UK), The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Ensemble, Elixir Ensemble (France), Orquestra do Norte (Portugal), Conservatoire de Musique et Danse d’Avignon, Conservatorio Superior de Granada, as well as individual patrons, institutions, festivals, and soloists.

Fiorini’s works are regularly performed and his music has been heard in most European cities, as well as in China, Japan, Thailand, Russia, Siberia, Ukraine, and the USA, in venues such as the Berlin Konzerthaus, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Flagey Theatre in Brussels, Manoel Theatre in Malta, Kyoto City Hall in Japan, Cadogan Hall in London, Gulbenkian Centre in Lisbon, and Cathédrale St-Louis des Invalides in Paris. In addition to his compositional career, Fiorini is the founder and artistic director of the International Spring Orchestra Festival, an annual classical music festival held in Malta in April. His album of violin concertos was released in 2014 by Divine Arts Records. He currently lives and works in Paris.