Alessandro Anatrini (b. Florence, 1983) is a composer, computational artist, and researcher. Through worldbuilding and simulation practices, he develops computational systems in which space, sound, and image evolve adaptively. Reworking forms from the past—Renaissance architectures, ancient cartographies, maps of premodern thought—he shapes immersive environments where image and sound articulate as unstable phenomena, balanced between familiarity and disorientation.
Current Positions
Since 2025, Anatrini holds the position of Full Professor of Multimedia at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica G. Nicolini in Piacenza. Since 2017, he has been Lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, where he teaches sound design, instrument design, and multimodal machine learning for the arts.
He is currently completing his PhD in the joint doctoral program KISS: Kinetics in Sound and Space at HfMT Hamburg and Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (2019-2025), with research titled “Hybrid Ecosystems: Interaction, Simulation and Artistic Practice in the Age of AI.”
Education
He studied historical musicology and pedagogy at the University of Bologna, composition at Conservatorio G.B. Martini (Bologna), and electronic music at Tempo Reale (Florence). He received his M.A. in Multimedia Composition from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg in 2017. He was selected as composer for the computer music course at IRCAM ManiFeste (2016), for the solo with electronics atelier with Ensemble Intercontemporain (2015), and for Klangforum Wien Reading Sessions at IMPULS Academy Graz (2013).
Performance & Recognition
His music has been performed by soloists from Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hamburger Symphoniker. He has participated in major festivals and conferences including ManiFeste (IRCAM), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Impuls Festival, Blurred Edges, Tactus Young Composer Forum, Sound and Music Computing Conference (SMC), International Conference on Technologies for Music Notation and Representation (TENOR), and AI and Music Creativity Conference (AIMC).
Awards include the New Music Generation composition prize (Kazakhstan, 2019), the Neue Musik und China competition (Hamburg, 2016), and the Luigi & Felice Magone composition prize (Bologna, 2010).
Collaborations & Research
He has collaborated as interaction designer and UX developer with Universität der Künste Berlin, the Digital Stage Foundation, and various research institutions. From 2015 to 2019, he developed generative sound installations for the Healing Environment pilot project at Universitätsklinikum Eppendorf Hamburg, studying the effects of adaptive sonic environments on hospital patients.
His installations are conceived as adaptive organisms with specific life cycles influenced by human presence. These systems combine custom-built software for physical modeling and interaction design, spatial audio synthesis, and photogrammetry techniques. They evolve autonomously, exhibit finite life spans, and create unique experiences that never repeat, questioning traditional notions of musical repeatability, authorship, and the relationship between human agency and machine autonomy.