Luciano Berio, whose centenary we celebrate this year, is remembered as one of the most innovative and influential Italian composers of the 20th century. A pioneer of electronic music – he co-founded the Studio di Fonologia Musicale in 1955 with Bruno Maderna, which became a key center for electronic music in Italy – Berio is especially renowned for his experimental and multidisciplinary work.

Though considered avant-garde for his time, Berio maintained a fascinating and complex relationship with the music of the past. Rather than rejecting tradition, he used it as a starting point, reinterpreting or blending it with modern techniques. In his Sequenze series, he explored the technical and expressive possibilities of each individual instrument, often through stylistic references to the past, reimagined through a contemporary lens.

MITO SettembreMusica 2025 honors his legacy by presenting his music alongside pieces by two seminal figures of American avant-garde music – John Cage and Julius Eastman – as well as great masters of the past. The festival also looks to the future, with two commissioned works by Marcello Filotei and Salvatore Frega, both directly inspired by Luciano Berio’s compositional approach.