Antongirolami-Selva Saxophone Duo

The saxophone duo of Gianpoalo Antongirolami (b.1964) and Michele Selva (b.1974) was founded in 2013 on the occasion of a concert dedicated to the modern and contemporary repertoire for their ensemble. Their keen interest in contemporary music in all its forms – from the avant-garde of the 1950s to the most recent innovations, with electroacoustic devices, live electronics and improvisation – together with a continuous desire to innovate the repertoire, led the duo to collaborate with many composers, both for the creation of new works and authorised transcriptions and arrangements of pre-existing scores. These include Sylvano Bussotti’s Ballerina Gialla e Pettirosso, adapted by Selva for saxophones and live electronics, and Louis Andriessen’s Lacrimosa (originally for two bassoons), adapted by Antongirolami for two alto saxophones (Donemus).

Their arrangements also include works for solo saxophone and other saxophone ensembles, like Solo-Kunst by Luis de Pablo, arranged by Selva for solo saxophone (Suvini Zerboni), and three compositions by Arvo Pärt – My heart’s in the Highlands, Psalom, Magnificat – arranged for saxophone quartet by Antongirolami, recorded for the compact disc Anima (Col Legno, 2017) and published by Universal Edition. The Antongirolami-Selva duo have made other transcriptions of works by Bruno Maderna, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Isang Yun, John Cage, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley and James Tenney.

There are many works written for and dedicated to the Antongirolami-Selva duo, including Crai by James Erber (Composers Edition) for two soprano saxophones, Frammenti di divenire by Sam Hayden for soprano and baritone saxophones (Verlag Neue Musik), Interlude by Reinhard Febel (Ricordi, Berlin) for soprano and tenor saxophones, Antidinamica by Roberto Doati for alto and baritone saxophones and live electronics and Horizon and Siren by Yuval Avital, a full-length piece which combines the two saxophones with live electronics, voice and video. Other composers of original works for the Antongirolami-Selva duo include Georges Aperghis, Christian Lauba, Anthony Braxton, Christopher Fox, Tigran Mansurian, Michael Edwards, Ondřej Adámek, Dimitri Nicolau, Lamberto Lugli and Cristian Gentilini.