Dario Lo Cicero studied flute and musicology in Palermo and Bologna, and taught himself composition. He completed his performing studies in Marcello Castellani's class of Recorder and Transverse flute at the Conservatorio in Verona. He got the A.R.C.M. Early music diploma with Honours at the Royal College of Music in London.

He has given important concerts throughout Europe in a wide variety of different repertoires, ranging from medieval music to first performances of contemporary compositions, as a soloist (in solo recitals, in duo or with orchestra) or in chamber ensembles. He established and directed the Laboratorio di Ricerca Musicale and the Orchestra Xenarmonica, has also made numerous radio and TV broadcasts and recorded for various labels, such as Tactus and Dynamic. His creative approach to the music of the past includes performances on rare 18th-19th century instruments, such as one of the oldest (1807) Claude Laurent crystal flutes, and on his own reconstructions of earlier glass flutes. He is also active as a composer of chamber, electroacoustic and stage music, mainly microtonal, and as a musical instruments inventor and maker. His instruments are widely used in the performances of his groundbreaking musical theatre. He has worked with renowned directors such as Eugène Green, Michele Perriera, Raul Ruiz and Thierry Salmon.

He has written and published musicological studies, collaborated with Umberto Eco's Encyclomedia on CD-ROM with hypertexts and music performances, and taught at the School of Drama at Gibellina and in various Conservatories, music schools (Palermo, Rome and Bologna) and summer courses (Erice, Urbino). At present he is Chief Librarian and Professor at the Conservatorio V. Bellini in Palermo, where he promoted and taught new courses in Historical ornamentation and improvisation, Microtonality, Music and instruments for environmental education.

Selected works of musical theatre, composed and performed by Dario Lo Cicero

1999

Barcarena (Lisbon, Portugal): Speculatio speculorum (“Mirrors' Speculation”). The performance took place in Fàbrica da pòlvora, a 16th century gunpowder factory recovered for cultural purposes, within the LAB8 Festival. Three different points of the Fàbrica were actually used for the performance, with the audience following the performer along the paths. The title reflects the recurrent reflection of images and sounds through mirrors, acoustical effects and a rudimentary equipment. As in a rite, a found tube was drilled on stage and subsequently used as a flute, musically interacting with the drill itself as in a “sound mirror”. Other features of Speculatio speculorum had been thoroughly described by Rui Catalão in a published essay, both in Portuguese and English.

2001

Palermo, Italy: Variazioni ed eventuali azioni (“Variations and any other actions”). Partial adaptation of Speculatio speculorum for a different place, it developed completely new parts. Among them, the choice “a la carte” of a selection of “musical courses” to be performed from a menu, distributed during the performance, and the collective construction of an instrument by part of the audience. As reported in a review, the highly involved audience incessantly asked for encores, and the performance had to stop after two hours and more.

2001

Palermo, Italy: World Music Trade Center Attack. Conceived soon after the World Trade Center Attack (or 9/11), as an “instant piece of musical theatre” in words and music, it focused on various topics: criticism of both the international trade of music and the business of “world music”, satire of profiting by disasters and charity concerts, and even more. A volunteer from the audience joined the performance, for which traditional instruments and objects (as sound sources) were used.

2004

Palermo, Italy: I suoni dell'acqua (“The Sounds of Water”). Performance of Water (C) Music, a piece for one or more live performers and recorded soundtrack, made exclusively with water sounds. The performance, joining the composer and Davide “Mezz” Mezzatesta , took place in an underground cave next to a qanat, an ancient Arabian aqueduct. Water (C) Music makes use of the newly developed concept of speleophony, inspired by polyrhythmic dropping of water in caves.

Palermo, Italy: Idrauletica (“Hydrauletics”). Live performance of Water (C) Music and other compositions and improvised pieces, with water as a common reference. This element is present as a sound source itself, as a part of musical instruments (e. g. music glasses filled of water to tune them), or as a recall in self-made instruments recycling objects found at the seaside.

2005

Palermo and Tuscania (VT), Italy: Strangaj instrumentoj el sep kontinentoj (“Strange instruments from seven continents” in Esperanto language). Multiculturally inspired work, whose performance was followed in the Tuscania repeat (within Soundscapes, Festival of Music and Art installations, Central Italy) by an exhibition of musical instruments. The final part includes a performance of La plonĝo, on a text of the Esperanto writer Sen Rodin, and the use of a newly invented graphical/musical instrument, the harmonographone. It is a sounding development of the harmonograph, a double asynchronous pendulum drawing figures close to Lissajous curves, as graphical renderings of ratios.

2006

Palermo, Italy: Concerto in forma di bambù (“Concerto in Bamboo Form”), for 12 bamboo instruments. The piece was live performed in the bamboo woods of the historical Botanical Garden in Palermo, and recorded as a soundtrack of the CD-ROM Bambù, botanica, design e architettura, produced by the Botanical Garden and University of Palermo. The performance opened an exhibition on bamboo, including a section of 20 musical instruments from Lo Cicero's collection.

Palermo, Italy: Suburbaj riveroj (“Underground Urban Rivers” in Esperanto language), sound, visual and smell arts installation across the Vucciria old quarter. The work focused on the underground river Papireto – metaphor of “buried”, underground social and artistic vitality - and some places where it's possible to catch an audible or visible glimpse of it. Many meters of metal strings were fixed, together with other sounding objects, across the ruins of the World War II nearby, creating gigantic instruments and allowing simultaneous collective performances in different places. The audience/visitors walked freely across these places, among which one hosted a sort of jam session with the river's sounds, caught by a microphone through a trapdoor. Near this window-equipped trapdoor, allowing to see the state of pollution down there, a contrasting element provided a cascade of planned ever-changing spicy smells, following a recipe/”smell score” by the composer himself. One strictly visual element of the installation was in the fountain of the decadent and dirty Piazza Garraffello, where previously taken photos of the fountain itself were let discolour under the water's jets, with a close boombox - disguised in a garbage bag - spreading music composed upon local soundscape.

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Apart from their own works, Dario Lo Cicero joined since 2002 different multidisciplinary and experimental artistic events. Some of them were with his band Radio 3(tre)sshh, using instruments made with recycled objects and materials, and “recycled” sound sometimes. Some were with Philip Corner, Phoebe Neville, Marco Cappelli, Gianni Gebbia and other artists, as a performer/improviser and as artistic director of Miti americani - americani miti (“American myths – quiet Americans”) Festival. These performances were in the coastline of Castel di Tusa (ME), in the Ficuzza woods (with more than 1000 kids, actively participating in a unique ecological/artistic event), Naples, Austria and other places.

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The second part of the musical tale Le Dragon et la Sorcière (“The Dragon and the Witch”), written and performed by Nicole Journot in Switzerland, also recorded on CD (VDE Gallo, CD-1182), is inspired from Dario Lo Cicero, referring to his habit of transforming everything in musical instruments. The author-performer actually uses, both live and on the CD, a flute made by Lo Cicero with a found dried long marrow.