Andrea Cera was born in Italy in 1969. He studied piano and composition at the Conservatory of Padua and participated in Cursus (the IRCAM’s computer music and composition course) before beginning his career as a composer, alternating institutional collaborations and low-budget projects.

His work is located in the field of contemporary art music and sound installation; it shows a desire to hybridize elements of what is categorized as commercial music and what is categorized as art music. In particular, he is fascinated by certain types of dance music (as well as electronic music) whose grip on body and mind seem significant to him.

He was a guest of the Fresnoy-National Studio of Contemporary Arts in Tourcoing in 2004 and 2005, which resulted in NightRun – an interactive installation whose sound material was built up from the shouts and murmurs of visitors – and Reactive Ambient Music – an installation based on real-time analysis of the ambient soundscape. In 2005, he created Mutating Score– for choreographer Hervé Robbe and in collaboration with the IRCAM – based on computer captures of voice and dance gestures. This work, along with Permis de Construire/Avis de Démolition (2000) and Rewind (2003), was part of a trilogy where the analysis and exploration of dancers’ movements and voices were a common theme for musical experimentation.

Andrea Cera has also collaborated with Gérard Chiron (for a sound collection for the “D_DAY” show at the Pompidou Center in 2005), with Romain Kronenberg on a series of songs for Hervé Robbe’s installation So long baby… Love and Songs will be in 2006, with Armando Menicacci and Christian Delecluse for the installation Terra Incognita at the Observatoire de Paris in 2006, and with the Parisian company Affari Esteri: Airports (Tenses 1) (2005), Les Avenants (2007), and Inside ##### (2009). In 2006, he was one of three finalists in the Orpheus Competition at the A. Belli de Spoleto Experimental Lyrical Theatre with Livergon. He went on to compose Distacco (2007) for that same theater, a musical theater piece based on the poems of Vincenzo M. Rippo, as well as Pigre Divinità (2008) for voice and ensemble, directed by Giorgio Pressburger. In 2007, he worked with the voice of the Reunion Island singer Danyel Waro for a new choreographic piece by Pascal Montrouge titled Superman et moi.

Cera has collaborated with Hervé Robbe on numerous plays, installations, exhibits, and choreographic pieces, notably Waves 02 in 2007, Double jeu in 2008, Un appartement en centre ville, a short film by Hervé Robbe and Vincent Bosc (2009), and Next Days in 2010. He has also worked with such artists as Marie-Laure Cazin (La tarentelle, an interactive concert-film (2009)), Elisa Zurlo and J.F. Nesplatz (for a feature film), and Gilles Boustani (theater and video performance). In November 2010, his Zoom-Up, networked music for two keyboards and real time electronics, was premiered in Paris (IRCAM) and Graz.

From 2010, Andrea Cera focuses on research and sound design projects in collaboration with Ircam, NOTAM (Oslo), Integra Project, and Infomus - Casa Paganini (Genoa). In 2011, he presented Urban Musical Game, designed with Ircam researchers (Sound Music Movement Interaction team), the design agency NoDesign and Phonotonic. In this project, augmented sports balls are used to manipulate and transform an interactive musical environment.
He also collaborates with Renault and the Perception and Sound Design team of Ircam for the creation of a sound signature for electric vehicles, as well as with Phonotonic, the SkAT-VG project (Sketching Audio Technologies using Vocalizations and Gestures) between 2014 and 2017, and is involved in a series of works for the Co.Me.DiA European Project.

In 2018, he received the « Best Sound » award in the Research and Development category at the ISA International Sound Awards, for the sound signature of the Renault Symbioz.

Andrea Cera lives in Malo, Italy, and teaches at the Conservatorio di Padova and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan.