Concert Scholar: 2007-08

Emanuele Battisti, a native of Italy, began studying piano at age 8. In 1998 he earned his Bachelors of Music in piano at the Conservatory of Mantua (Italy). A subsequent active life as a composer drew his attention to the organ and in 2000 he began seriously to play organ, eventually returning to complete his Bachelors of Music degree in organ in 2006. An interest in academics, in particular literature and history, led him to complete a degree in Italian Literature and Musicology also in 2006 at the University of Parma.

Emanuele divides his interests equally between early Baroque and contemporary music, and between performance, composition, and research. His activities include solo and ensemble performances, composing acoustical and electroacoustical music, teaching high school, and lecturing at the Catholic University of Milan. He has published multiple articles for the periodical "Musicalmente," as well as program notes for Piazzolla-Berio-Larsson, a CD recorded for the Chamber Orchestra of the Conservatory of Mantua. His first full-length book, The Relationship between Music and Science in the Contemporary Age, awaits publication.

Emanuele holds the Marcella K. Brownson Fellowship for Organ Study at the University of Illinois (Champaign/Urbana), where he is completing the Master of Music degree in the studio of Dr. Dana Robinson and studying composition in the studio of Scott Wyatt. He has previously studied with, among others, Nanco Salardi (piano), Alfonso Gaddi (organ), Paolo Perezzani (composition), and Giuseppe Papagno (contemporary history and culture). During the 07-08 academic year, he will also hold a Teaching Assistantship in the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Illinois.

Frédéric Lacroix is a native of Canada and a graduate of l'Université de Montréal and the University of Ottawa. He is an active and energetic performer on both modern and early pianos, a composer and a teacher, and he is currently completing a D. M. A. in performance practice at Cornell University under the direction of Malcolm Bilson. Frédéric's previous teachers have included Marc Durand, Cynthia Floyd and Andrew Tunis. Increasingly in demand as a collaborative artist, teacher and adjudicator, Frédéric has played in the United States, Canada and Taiwan and has appeared with such ensembles as the Albany and Ottawa Symphony Orchestras, Cornell Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Fusions, and the Society for New Music. He also makes regular appearances on the radio, on the Canadian CBC and SRC as well as the American NPR. In addition to his work with early repertoires, Frédéric has enjoyed collaborating with composers and performers in the premieres of a number of Canadian and American works. As a composer he has been privileged to have his works performed in the United States and Canada. Frédéric's latest song cycle, Nova Scotia Tartan (2003), is featured on Hail, a disc dedicated to Canadian Art Song.