A composer, researcher, and pedagogue, Marco Stroppa studied music in Italy (obtaining degrees in piano, choral music and choir conducting, composition, and electronic music from the Verona, Milan, and Venice Conservatories) with Laura Palmieri, Guido Begal, Renato Dionisi, Azio Corghi, and Alvise Vidolin. From 1984 to 1986, he undertook further studies of computer music, cognitive psychology, and artificial intelligence at the MIT Media Laboratory as a Fulbright Scholar.

From 1980 to 1984, he worked at the Computer Music Centre (CSC) at Padua University, where he composed his first work of mixed music, Traiettoria (1984), for piano and computer.

In 1982, at the behest of Pierre Boulez, he moved to Paris, where he worked as a composer and researcher at IRCAM, taking up the post of Director of the Music Research Department in 1987. In 1990, he resigned from this position in order to dedicate himself fully to composition, research, and teaching. Nonetheless, regular contact with IRCAM during his time living in France was key in Stroppa’s musical training and development as a composer. He taught composition at the Paris and Lyon Conservatoires (CNSMD), and in 1999, was appointed full professor of composition and computer music at the University of Music and Performing Arts (Musikhochschule) in Stuttgart, succeeding Helmut Lachenmann. In addition, he continues to regularly participate in pedagogical activities at IRCAM.

An active and respected teacher, in 1987 he founded the Workshop of Composition and Computer Music at the International Bartok Seminar in Szombathely, Hungary, serving as director there for thirteen years. This experience allowed him to meet leading Hungarian musicians and to acquaint himself with the work of numerous Hungarian poets. The significance of these encounters is manifest in the works élet…fogytiglan, Dialogue imaginaire entre un poète et un philosophe (1997) and Hommage à Gy. K. (2004).

A recipient of numerous prizes (including an ASCAP Prize in 1985, Cervo New Music Prize in 1990, an honourable mention at the Prix Italia in 1992, and the Salzburg Kompositionspreis des Osterfestspiele in 1996), Marco Stroppa has also published some thirty essays in several international publications, and is currently preparing a book on his own work with composer and musicologist Francis Courtot.

Often grouped into cycles of works composed around a particular theme, Stroppa’s creative output frequently draws inspiration from poetry and mythology, as well as from personal contact with musicians such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Cécile Daroux, Florian Hölscher, Thierry Miroglio, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and Benny Sluchin. Noteworthy examples of this include a cycle of pieces for solo instruments and electronics inspired by the poetry of e. e. cummings, comprising Miniature Estrose (2001), Auras (2003), little i (1996), I will not kiss your f.ing flag (2005), … of silence (2007), and hist whist (2009); and a cycle of concertos inspired by the poetry of W. B. Yeats, comprising Upon a Blade of Grass for piano and orchestra (1996) and From Needle’s Eye for trombone, double quintet, and percussion (1996, revised in 2008).

In addition, Stroppa’s catalogue includes numerous works for acoustic instruments, electronic instruments, two radio operas, theatrical music and context-dependent pieces, e.g., his score for piano and electronics for the performance piece Race by Pascal Rambert, premiered at the October Festival in Normandy in 1997. Other noteworthy pieces include Zwielicht (1998) for contrabass, two percussionists and sound projections in 13 dimensions; Come Natura di Foglia for voice and electronics, commissioned by IRCAM and Stroppa’s first work for voice; Cantilena (2003) for three choirs of sixteen singers; Lamento (2006) for six-part choir ; Perchè non riusciamo a vederla, “screams, pleas and clamours” for choir a cappella with viola obbligato ad libitum (2008); Ritratti senza volto (2007), a commission of the Paris Orchestra; the concertos No Boughs for piccolo and string orchestra and And one by one we drop away for cello and orchestra (both from 2006); Like Milk Spilt (2008) for accordion, two “shadow accordions”, and four orchestral groups; and Let me sing into your ear (2010) for basset horn and orchestra.

His first opera, Re Orso, based on a text by Arrigo Boito, was premiered at the Paris Opéra Comique in 2012.