Sylvano Bussotti, Italian violinist and composer (died 2021)

Sylvano Bussotti was an Italian composer of contemporary classical music and also a painter, set and costume designer, opera director and manager, and writer and professor. His compositions employ graphic notation, which has often created special problems of interpretation. He was known as a composer for the stage. His first opera was La Passion selon Sade, which premiered in Palermo in 1965. Later Bussotti operas and ballets were premiered at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze, Teatro Lirico di Milano, Teatro Regio di Torino, and Piccola Scala di Milano, among other venued. He was artistic director of La Fenice in Venice, the Puccini Festival, and the music section of the Venice Biennale. He taught internationally, for a decade at the Fiesole School of Music. He is regarded as a leading composer of Italy's avantgarde, and a having been a Renaissance man with many talents who combined the arts expressively.