Lino Liviabella

Lino Liviabella won the silver medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in the Art Competitions in the category Compositions for Orchestra, with his work Il Vincitore (The Winner). It was a symphonic poem which was first performed during the Olympics by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by the author. Liviabella was an Italian composer, pianist and professor. He was descended from a musical family. His paternal grandfather Livio was a pupil of Rossini, and master of the Choir of the Basilica of St. Nicholas of Tolentino. Liviabella’s father, Orestes, was a graduate of the Royal Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome, and was the organist and director of the Chapel music of the Cathedral of Macerata.

In 1920 Liviabella received his baccalaureate degree from the University of Rome. The decision to devote himself exclusively to music then created some conflict with his parents and in this period Lino Liviabella became economically independent by giving private lessons and playing the piano in cinemas (it was still the silent film period). He was appointed director and professor of piano at the Liceo Musicale of Pescara in 1928, then taught at Venice beginning in 1931 and in 1940, Liviabella won a competition to become the chair of counterpoint and composition at the Conservatory of Palermo. In 1942 he settled in Bologna, where he served as the chair for counterpoint and composition at the Conservatory, and then became regent and deputy director. He later worked at the Conservatories in Pesaro (1953-59) and Parma (1959-63), and then returned tp Bologna to become its director.

Liviabella was a member, for symphonic music, of the Central Committee of supervising broadcasts, beginning in 1960. He wrote for various magazines, and produced numerous compositions for chamber music and lyrics for voice and piano.