(October 24, 1925 - May 27, 2003)

Luciano Berio started to learn music with his father, and then continued at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan under Giulio Cesare Paribeni and Giorgio Federico Ghedini. In 1954 he founded and directed with Bruno Maderna the Studio di Fonologia Musicale (an electronic music studio) at Rai in Milan. In 1956 he founded the music periodical "Incontri Musicali". 

He taught in Darmstadt, at the Dartington Summer School, at Mills College in California, at Harvard University and at the Juilliard School in New York between 1965 and 1972. From 1973 to 1980 he acted as director of the electro-acoustic division of IRCAM in Paris and in 1987 he opened the Tempo Reale Center in Florence. Berio received honorary degrees from the City University of London (1980), the University of Siena (1995), the University of Turin (1999) and the University of Bologna (2000). During the academic year 1993-94 he took a teaching post at Harvard University. 

He was awarded the Siemens Prize and the Wolf Foundation Prize in 1991. In 1995 the Venice Biennale gave him the Leone d'Oro and in 1996 he received the Praemium Imperiale from the Emperor of Japan.

He directed the main orchestras in Europe, America, Israel and Japan. He wrote several compositions for various orchestras, chamber music and vocals. His most important musical theatrical works are: Passaggio (1972, Edoardo Sanguineti), La Vera Storia (1981, Italo Calvino), Un re in ascolto (1984 Italo Calvino), Outis (1996, Dario Dal Corno) Cronaca del Luogo (1999, Talia Pecker Berio) and the final piece of the Turandot (Puccini), staged in 2002 in various theaters around the world. 

On September 21, 2000 he became President-Artistic Director of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.

Luciano Berio passed away in Rome in 2003, after completing Stanze, for baritone, choirs and orchestra