Federico Campana lives and works as a freelance composer and audio-visual director in
the autonomous province of South Tyrol, Italy. He collaborates steadily with artistic and
cultural institutions, contemporary art and music festivals and international film production
companies. His compositions or film soundtracks have been broadcasted by the some of the
most important European television or radio stations, such as ARTE, ZDF, ORF, Servus TV,
Redbull TV, RAI.
Born in Cento, in the province of Ferrara, in 1981, Federico Campana lives and works in South Tyrol as a freelance composer and audio-visual director. Since childhood captivated by the audio-visual medium, he achieved a dual training both in the field of filmed image and musical composition.
After studying photography and painting at the Adolfo Venturi Art high school in Modena, he enrolled in the ZELIG- school of documentary cinema and new Media in Bolzano, where he studied with Helga Reidemeister and Tarek Ben Abdallah, graduating in 2004 in film direction – project development.
He later deepened his musical obsessions, studying with Massimo Marchi and Hannes Kerschbaumer at the Claudio Monteverdi Conservatory of Bolzano, where he graduated in electronic music and in electroacoustic composition with full scores. Subsequently he studied composition with Fabio Cifariello Ciardi at the F.A. Bonporti Conservatory of Trento.
Combining the compositional modern techniques of contemporary music with the expressive possibilities of cinema, Federico Campana has created numerous film soundtracks. In 2013 he composed the soundtrack for DAL PROFONDO, directed by Valentina Pedicini, the film is about the closure of last carbon mine in Italy. In competition for David di Donatello in 2014 and winner of Best Documentary at the 8th Rome Film Festival, the film was awarded “for the visual and soundtrack strength”.
In 2019, he renewed his collaboration with Valentina Pedicini, composing the soundtrack of FAITH:
a disturbing documentary about a reclusive religious sect, produced in collaboration with RAI Cinema, and presented in competition at the IDFA in Amsterdam, showed at Berlinale – Woche der Kritik, winner as best documentary at Docs Barcelona 2020 and winner of a Special Award in Honor of Valentina Pedicini at the prestigious “Nastri d’argento 2020”.
In 2019 he also wrote the music for BECOMING ME, a documentary by Martine De Biasi, winner in two categories at the Bolzano 2019 festival (Best Documentary in the international competition and Audience award) and many others.
Federico Campana is also very active in the contemporary music world. As composer and Klangregisseur, he performs with CHROMOSON – ensemble for contemporary music ,
With this ensemble he performed, presenting his music, at the Distat Terra Festival in Buenos Aires, Novalis Music + Art Festival Zagreb (Croatia), WGT in Leipzig, at the Gustav Mahler Wochen in Toblach, Transart Festival (Bolzano) and many others.
In 2017, together with Hannes Kerschbaumer, Federico Campana composed METALLON, a one hour “symphonic” poem about bell casting scored for string orchestra, 3 solo percussion players, live electronics and interactive lights. Winner of the “Stadt Potenzial: Innsbruck 2016” call, the work was performed by the InnStrumenti orchestra during the Klangspuren Schwaz festival 2017 and was transmitted in full length by the main Austrian radio broadcaster OE1.
His contemporary instrumental compositions or film soundtracks have been broadcasted by
important European television or radio stations, such as ARTE, ZDF, ORF, Servus TV, Redbull TV, RAI3, RAI5, RAI history. He was also a member of the Council board of FAS, Film Association of South Tyrol from 2012 to 2015.
In addition to being a composer, he is also very active as an audio-visual director. In collaboration with author and film editor Cornelia Schöpf, they directed numerous documentaries, including UNDA RADIO – The story of a pioneer, and DIE SCHWESTER MEINER FREUNDIN, an intimate film about the thin line between life and death, “normality” and disability.
In 2012, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Statute of Autonomy of South Tyrol, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano commissioned Federico Campana to produce STIMMEN VOCI UJES, a 30-minute experimental documentary film which he directed and composed the soundtrack.
In recent years Federico has progressively moved away from the world of documentary of his education to open up to multimedia contemporary stage production an and creative writing for fictional cinema.
In 2014 he began to explore the expressive potential of multimedia, creating the interactive video and light design of LUCE NERA, a contemporary music theater by composer Hannes Kerschbaumer. The project, which was about the use of torture under the Pinochet dic torship in Chile, was premiered during the 2014 Klangspuren Schwaz Festival.
In 2018 he co-directed, together with composer Hannes Kerschbaumer and actress Gina Mattiello, the contemporary Opera GAIA – a dystopian vision, for which he realized light design and interactive video; the work was the winner of the Oper.a 20.21 Fringe call organized by the Haydn foundation of Bolzano and Trento in collaboration with the municipal theater of Bolzano.
In 2019, Federico Campana and Cornelia Schöpf co-wrote the Libretto for the science-fiction multimedia performance SOUNDS LIKE FUTURE, for which he compose the live performed music, created the stage set and light. The project, winner of the Weigh Station 2019 call and SUPERNOVE call of Pergine Festival 2020, premiered in an early stage at the NOI TECH PARK in Bolzano. Currently he is working, together with Cornelia Schöpf, on the script development for his first fiction feature: CANTUS – Il canto perduto. The film, which combines music and filmed images in an emblematic way, was already the winner of the prestigious call for development “RACCONTI”
in 2017, organized by the IDM – Film Fund & Commission of South Tyrol / Südtirol.