Maurizio Azzan was born in 1987 in Carmagnola, Italy. He studied composition with Alessandro Solbiati at the Conservatory of Milan, as well as with Salvatore Sciarrino. In 2015, he began his masters in composition at the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP), where he studied composition with Frédéric Durieux and electroacoustic music with Luis Naón, Yann Geslin, Yan Maresz, and Oriol Saladrigues. He has also taken masterclasses with Franck Bedrossian, Pierluigi Billone, Stefano Gervasoni, Francesco Filidei, Joshua Fineberg, Michaël Levinas, and Tristan Murail, among others. He holds a masters in philology and ancient literature from the University of Turin. In 2017-2018, he participated in Cursus (the IRCAM’s composition and computer music course).

His music draws inspiration from his interests in the visual and the performing arts, and in ancient and contemporary literature, nourishing his understanding of music “as a dynamic space-time network, in which instability is the pivotal element of the existential condition.”

His compositions have been played in Italy and abroad by soloists such as Antonio Politano, Anna D’Errico, Marie Ythier, Enzo Porta, and Paolo Beltramini, as well as ensembles such as the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Divertimento Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, mdi ensemble, IEMA Ensemble, Proton Bern, Schallfeld Ensemble, Ensemble L’arsenale, Quatuor Zerkalo, Ex Novo Ensemble, and Sentieri Selvaggi. His work is also regularly performed at festivals and in concert seasons, including ManiFeste, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Festival Internazionale MITO SettembreMusica, Festival Milano Musica, Time of Music Festival, the Budapest Music Center, Expo Milano 2015, Festival Pontino, Lo spirito della Musica di Venezia, and the Boston New Music Initiative.

He has been a fellow at the Centre International Nadia et Lili Boulanger, and in 2012 he was awarded the Premio Nazionale delle Arti by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. In 2013, he won the Incontri Internazionali Franco Donaton composition competition in Milan, and took part in the Fondation Royaumont’s first PROTOTYPE, a professional training programme in contemporary dance and music for composers and choreographers.

In 2017-2018, Azzan was an artist-in-residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and in 2019 was a composer-in-residence in the residency program organized by the Austrian Federal Chancellery in cooperation with KulturKontakt Austria. In 2021 he is composer in residence at FFF – Fortissimissimo Firenze Festival.

His work has been published by Suvini Zerboni-Sugarmusic since 2014.