Marcello Palazzo - Hive

This Workout! session has not yet been released.
View all Workout! sessions

Marcello Palazzo (b. 1999) is a British-Italian conductor and composer based in the UK.

Marcello has completed a BA in Music at Durham University, where he was a Choral Scholar, and graduated with First Class Honours. His musical training began at Junior Guildhall, where he studied violin, piano and composition, before being awarded a Music Scholarship to Eton College. He is currently studying for a Masters in Composition at New College, Oxford, and also received a postgraduate composition offer from The Royal Academy of Music, which awarded him a scholarship.

As a composer, Marcello has been on a Sound and Music Summer School, where he studied with David Horne and participated in a masterclass with Laura Bowler. Whilst at school, he wrote music for a production of Molière's Le Malade Imaginaire, short films, and the school choir. Marcello studied with Christian Mason, Jonathan Woolgar and took part in a masterclass with Nico Muhly. He has been both shortlisted and highly commended in the BBC Inspire Composition Competition, won 2nd Prize at the Windsor Festival for vocal composition and was awarded a place as an NYO Composer. Whilst at Durham, Marcello won the Durham University Orchestral Society Composition Competition, after adjudication from James Weeks, John Casken and Sir Thomas Allen - Sir Thomas Allen subsequently performed the world premiere at Sage, Gateshead. Marcello’s music has been workshopped by pianist Ben Smith and EXAUDI. He has received tuition from Laurence Osborn and has been studying privately with Julian Anderson since 2017.In my string quartet, 'Hive', I am primarily concerned with the nervous movements, communicative gestures and visceral energy that might be observed in bees. I see certain similarities between the way in which bees socially organise themselves, and how we do as humans. For example, it seems to me that there is a parallel between the pollination process and the way in which we interact online with friends on social media and through sharing posts. The industrious character of the bee when constructing a beehive and the sudden explosion of colour as it interacts with new flowers in quick succession are both ideas that have influenced the musical content of the piece. Rather than trying to depict a scene where bees are present, however, the musical form becomes servant to the implications inferred from the actions of bees – in this way, the idea of a hive holds structural rather than pictorial significance.

The general high-intensity of the piece provides a consistent expressive canvas, despite the sudden juxtaposition of new ideas in the tight-knit form. I am fascinated by the image of honeycomb, where the whole structure stands together as a unified sum of tiny hexagonal sub-structures. Indeed, there are significant moments of development where the establishment of a new idea is dependent upon carrying forward a small part of the previous one, contributing to an almost mimetic lattice or tableau.

Composer: Marcello Palazzo

Composer photo
Photo of Marcello Palazzo
Biography

Marcello Palazzo (b. 1999) is a British-Italian conductor and composer based in the UK.

Marcello has completed a BA in Music at Durham University, where he was a Choral Scholar, and graduated with First Class Honours. His musical training began at Junior Guildhall, where he studied violin, piano and composition, before being awarded a Music Scholarship to Eton College. He is currently studying for a Masters in Composition at New College, Oxford, and also received a postgraduate composition offer from The Royal Academy of Music, which awarded him a scholarship.

As a composer, Marcello has been on a Sound and Music Summer School, where he studied with David Horne and participated in a masterclass with Laura Bowler. Whilst at school, he wrote music for a production of Molière's Le Malade Imaginaire, short films, and the school choir. Marcello studied with Christian Mason, Jonathan Woolgar and took part in a masterclass with Nico Muhly. He has been both shortlisted and highly commended in the BBC Inspire Composition Competition, won 2nd Prize at the Windsor Festival for vocal composition and was awarded a place as an NYO Composer. Whilst at Durham, Marcello won the Durham University Orchestral Society Composition Competition, after adjudication from James Weeks, John Casken and Sir Thomas Allen - Sir Thomas Allen subsequently performed the world premiere at Sage, Gateshead. Marcello’s music has been workshopped by pianist Ben Smith and EXAUDI. He has received tuition from Laurence Osborn and has been studying privately with Julian Anderson since 2017.