In 1897 Pietro Acciarito, a Florentine anarchist, attempted to stab King Umberto I. He was arrested, put on trial, and condemned to a life of imprisonment. Later, after being put in solitary confinement, he went mad and ended his days in a prison mental asylum.

This year’s BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, worth 400.000 €, goes to György Kurtág. The award is funded by the Spanish BBVA Foundation in order to promote and disseminate world-class scientific research and artistic creation. Previous laureates include Pierre Boulez, Salvatore Sciarrino and Helmut Lachenmann. “The novel dimension of Kurtág’s music lies not in the material he uses but in its spirit, the authenticity of its language, and the way it crosses borders between spontaneity and reflection, between formalism and expression”, remarks jury secretary Ranko Markovic.

Luigi Dallapiccola was born in 1904 in Pisino d’Istria, at the time a small town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and defined by the composer himself as “a crossroads between three frontiers. While studying he deepened his knowledge of composers like Ravel, Debussy, Bartok, Stravinsky and Hindemith. In 1924, a performance of Pierrot lunaire conducted by Schoenberg himself in Florence left a deep impression on the young musician. In the years following World War II Dallapiccola’s fame began to spread both in Europe and the United States, where he held advanced courses at Tanglewood, attended by amongst others Luciano Berio, and in New York.

Following his second opera, Samy Moussa dives back into orchestral writing with a new piece, Nocturne, which will be premiered on the 17th March 2015 in Montreal. This performance continues his collaboration with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Maestro Kent Nagano, with whom he maintains a long-term professional relationship. Samy Moussa speaks about this new work, which he has deliberately designed as absolute music.

On February 23, the Teatro Sociale in Como will host the world premiere of the Expo Opera Milo, Maya e il giro del mondo (Milo and Maya around the world), a contemporary opera for young audiences (ages 6 to 14) written by Matteo Franceschini on a libretto by Lisa Capaccioli.

Disiecta Membra is a Latin term that refers to ancient fragments of poetry, manuscripts, or other cultural objects. Mauro Lanza has adopted this as the title for his new piece for vocal sextet.

On February 8, Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists will perform the world premiere of Silvia Colasanti’s Preludio, Presto and Lamento, in Foligno, Italy. The piece was commissioned by the Amici della Musica di Foligno and dedicated to the ensemble by the composer.

Editio Musica Budapest and Peter Eötvös continue their collaboration with the Peter Eötvös Foundation Series, which is dedicated to new compositions by talented young composers discovered and supported by the foundation.

British composer Joseph Phibbs and the BBC Symphony Orchestra have been awarded a commissioning grant by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation for a new orchestra work. The premiere of the new piece will take place on May 21, 2016 at the Barbican in London and will be conducted by Sakari Oramo.

The Associazione Lirica e Concertistica Italiana (AsLiCo) in Como has won the 2014 Fedora – Rolf Liebermann Opera Prize with Matteo Franceschini’s Milo, Maya e il giro del mondo (Milo and Maya around the world), a contemporary opera for children and young people on a libretto by Lisa Capaccioli.