Hi / Moi / Ciao,

This site contains information and material on my academic activities as musicologist, semiotician and musician, plus some personal information and thoughts (mostly in Italian). I hope you enjoy it...

:Dario

Visiting Card   

main website
dariomartinelli.eu

e-mail
dario.martinelliAThelsinki.fi
dariomartinelli.euATgmail.com 
(please, replace AT with @) UP

Biography   

A not-always-serious chronology of the key-moments in my life and career.

1974  

--- March, 1: I am born in Andria (Italy) to Giuseppe Martinelli and Vittoria Lepore, second son of two children (the other one, Silvio, was NOT called after THAT Silvio). UP

1983  

--- My family moves from Corato to Trani, an event I will never fully recover from ;-) UP

1984  

--- May: I take the First Communion, my second sacrament (after Baptism). It is very likely to remain the last one. UP

1985  

--- June: I finish elementary school 

--- After years of controversial relation with music (and several failed attempts to learn music with a few teachers), I start playing guitar amatorially UP

1986  

--- I get my first electric guitar --- I write my first (horrible) song UP

1988  

--- June: I finish the first three years of my secondary education ("Scuola Media") 

--- September: I get into "Liceo Linguistico" secondary school, in Bisceglie. UP

1989 

--- May: I join my first band (named "20 maggio"), as rhythm guitarist 

--- June: My first holiday without family. Me and a friend of mine go to England --- October: for the first time (with another band, "Overflows", which I join as guitarist and lead-vocalist), I perform few of my songs live UP

1990  

--- June: I get a Fender Stratocaster, a Fender amplifier and some effects 

--- July: First kiss!!! UP

1991 

--- January: I join my first political association 

--- July: I record a lousy demo of my music, and issue a song in a self-produced compilation of so-called "emerging" groups. 

--- August: I join a band called "DNA" and, one year before it becomes trendy, perform two 'unplugged' concerts. The events are highly unsuccessful. 

--- November: I join the band "Arkham", as guitarist, back-vocalist, and occasional keyboard player. UP

1992 

--- May: I take my driving-license, just in time to have a chance to drive our 19-year-old Fiat 128, also known as "Macchina del popolo", sold later this year 

--- June: I get a Korg 01/WFD workstation keyboard, a major improvement for my compositional work. UP

1993  

--- July: I pass my A-levels with the highest grade.

--- September: I enroll to the University of Bologna, at DAMS (musicology) 

--- October: I join my first animal-rights association UP

1994  

--- I start composing more experimental music

--- July: the ephimeral life of "Arkham" ends after a tremendously disastrous concert, where - among many other things - I'm forced to play a song by Gen Arcobaleno 

--- I work as a volunteer-journalist for a local newspaper. This will allow me to interview my long-time singer-songwriter hero, Sergio Caputo.

--- August: I become vegetarian. UP

1996  

--- January: after two years and a half of unexplainable hesitation, I move to Bologna, in a student-house. It remains one of the most decisive moments in my life. 

--- February: I meet my first academic mentor and dear friend, Prof. Gino Stefani. He will be the supervisor of my master thesis, and the first promoter of my academic career.

--- April: I join my first musicological congress and publish my first academic paper.

--- August: I attend a summer school in Musical Animation and Music-therapy. UP

1997  

--- August: second year of the summer school in Musical Animation and Music-therapy. UP

1998  

--- I join an unplugged trio named "Bloom", as back-vocalist and guitarist: it remains the relatively-most successful pop act I've been part of.

--- September: I perform my first ambient/electronica concert UP

1999  

--- March, 25: I graduate in musicology, cum laude, with a thesis in zoomusicology.

--- May: First international musicogical congress, in Strasbourg.
Few days later, I meet my second and equally-important academic mentor and dear friend, Prof. Eero Tarasti. He will become the supervisor of my PhD thesis, and another fundamental promoter of my academic career. 

--- I write and perform the music for a theatre-dance show called "Aleph".

--- Most memorable moment of the year. Together with Franca Menneas, co-inhabitant of my same student-house, I win the Bologna's student-house tournament of "Calcio Balilla", defeating in the final the favourite team, typical "Hollywood bad guys" type of couple :)

--- June: Bloom wins a musical contest in Bologna with one of my songs, called "Non lasciarmi andare via".

--- August:another song of mine, "Kimeo and Kasui", this time performed solo, wins another contest, in Mosciano St.Angelo (Abruzzo, Italy) September: I move to Helsinki, another fundamental (perhaps, the most important) step for my personal growth

--- September: I start my PhD at the University of Helsinki

--- November: My first zoomusicological article is published. UP

2000  

--- January: A radio-interview concerning my research is broadcasted by Italian Radio Rai. 

--- February: My first international article is published.

--- May: First lecture as invited speaker.

--- October: my academic- teaching activity starts with a course in Zoosemiotics and Italian Semiotics.

--- November: Helsingin Sanomat, the main Finnish newspaper, publishes an article concerning my research. It is the first of several articles/interviews/programs issued by Finnish media. UP 

2001  

--- January: First seminar as invited speaker.

--- April: I move to Bologna for four months in order to finish my PhD dissertation. It turns out as a huge mistake, for the exceptionally high temperature makes it very hard to concentrate

--- September: I become president of the student organisation "Semiosphere", in Helsinki UP

2002  

--- May: my first book, "How musical is a whale?" is published.

--- May, 10: I achieve my doctorate, by defending a thesis in zoomusicology. Grade: eximia cum laude approbatur. UP

2003  

--- February: First congress as invited speaker.

--- June: I start collaborating with the on-line magazine LaRondine and the Italian Institute of Culture.

--- October: I meet Anna Maria Castelli, with whom I'm currently working on two different musical projects.

--- December: I achieve a researcher position for the Academy of Finland 

---  I restart my activity as a musician, by performing a sound installation with Petri Kuljuntausta, one of the key-figures in Finnish electronic music.

--- UmRadio is born, with DJ's ppo, WalrusDJ and myself (PhDJ) UP

2004  

--- Umweb, research group and publishing series, is founded by myself, Merja Bauters and Guido Ipsen. 

--- April, 4th: Oddly enough, for being the mediocre football player that I am, I play in the National Finnish Cup. 1 presence, 0 goals: still, something to tell my nephews.

--- June: I chair my first session within a congress.

--- July: "Semiotics from S to S", a selection of semiotic essays edited by myself, Ipsen and Bauters, is the first Umweb publication. 

--- I start working on three musical projects: music for a theatre show (featuring Anna Maria Castelli), animal sounds-based compositions for the Sibelius Academy, and electronic songs for Castelli.

--- Radio Rai broadcasts some of my music, with vocal insertions by Anna Maria Castelli A collaboration starts, as exhibit coordinator, with Heureka Science Centre for an exhibition on music. I'm responsible for the sections on zoomusicology and partly on popular music.

--- December: I'm honoured with the Oscar Parland Prize for Prominent Semioticians UP

2005

--- February: I buy an apartment in Helsinki (in the beautiful area of Laajasalo)

--- I'm nominated Guest-Professor in the Finnish Network University of Semiotics

--- March, 31st: "Do not feed the artists", electronic composition written and performed by Petri Kuljuntausta and myself is premiered at the Sibelius Academy, with coreographies by Laura Pesonen

--- September, 3rd: "Do not feed the artists" is performed at the Eclectica Avantgarde Festival of Tartu (Estonia)

2006

--- January: I achieve the dosentturi (Associate Professorship) in Musicology and Semiotics, at the University of Helsinki.

--- Together with producer Paolo Bucciarelli, I start the recording sessions for the upcoming Anna Maria Castelli's album "(R)esistere"

--- Febraury: Radio Fo, the first program for the Italian community in Finland, starts broadcasting. I'm responsible for the musical part.

--- March-May: I teach History of Music and Musical Theatre, at the Academy of Fine Arts, in Bari (Italy)

--- May: I write the music for a documentary entitled "I luoghi di Sibilla", for which I contribute also in direction and storyboard 

--- September: The 9th International Congress on Musical Signification, of which I'm Secretary General takes place in Roma. A special guest of the congress is my hero Ennio Morricone, with whom I have the pleasure to talk and - most of all - listen to my all-time favourite theme of his, "Le Train", written for a TV series, back in the late 1970's  

--- October: I receive the Knighthood of the order "Stella della Solidarietà Italiana" from the Italian Republic. The title Cavaliere (Knight) of the mentioned order must not be confused with another form of knigthhood, "Cavaliere del lavoro", in which category I would be in very arguable company. 

2007

--- January: My second book, "Zoosemiotics: proposals for a handbook" is published.

--- Recording sessions for the upcoming Anna Maria Castelli's album "(R)esistere" are over. The mixing process starts.

--- March: I give a seminar in zoomusicology at the Music Academy of Barcelona, Spain.

--- July: I get engaged!!!

--- Mixing sessions for the upcoming Anna Maria Castelli's album "(R)esistere" are over. Will the album be ever released???

--- September: I give a few semiotic lectures in the Early Fall School of Semiotics in Sozopol (Bulgaria), an event organised yearly by the New Bulgarian University in Sofia.

--- October: The first issue of the journal "IF - Journal of Italo-Finnish studies", which I co-founded with Lina Navickaite, is published. 

--- November: I give an Introduction to Semiotics course at the University of Lapland, in Rovaniemi. Yes, I visit Santa Claus too.

2008

--- May: I give a course in Popular Music studies at Dortmund University

--- June: "Zoosphere - A musical encryptation of animal sounds", an album of electronic music written and performed with Petri Kuljuntausta, is published. It is my first CD as a composer.

--- "NightinGala", the first conference in zoomusicology, is organised in Finland, under my scientific direction. The main topic of the conference, predictably enough, is the nightingale Luscinia Luscinia. 

--- The above event takes place during the Kallio-Kuninkala Music Festival, during which my composition "Nightingale you are the one" is premiered, along with a theatre performance by Parttyli Rinne and Nora Lähteenmäki.

UP