Sonia Bo was born in Lecco (March 27, 1960). She took a diploma in piano in 1981 and another in choir conducting in 1983. She went on to study composition at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan under Renato Dionisi and Azio Corghi, taking a diploma with first class honours in 1985, before going on to do advanced studies at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome under the guidance of Franco Donatoni.

Right from the beginning of her career as a composer she received recognition in the form of a series of prizes at various national and international competitions: the first prize at the “Guido d’Arezzo” competition with Frammenti da Jacopone (1985), the “Giuseppe Savagnone” in Rome with Quartetto (1986), the Alpe Adria Giovani in Triest with Due bagatelle (1988) and the gold medal at the Premio Internazionale Città di Trieste with Synopsis (1995).

Sonia Bo’s music broke out of the confines of Italy as early as 1983 at the Okanagan Music Festival for Composers in Canada and continued its peregrinations with performances at the Festival Focus in New York, the Musica Nova in Sofia, the Europhonia in Zagreb, the Almeida in London and the Nieuwe Muziek in Middelburg.
Closer to home her compositions have been performed in many festivals such as Spaziomusica in Cagliari, Traiettorie sonore in Como, Nuova consonanza and Nuovi Spazi Musicali in Rome, Antidogma in Turin and the Venice Biennale as well as at the Teatro alla Scala and the Teatro Comunale in Florence. 

Since 1997 she has taught composition at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan and has conducted courses at the universities of Ferrara, Pesaro, Piacenza and Verona. Ricordi is the main publisher of her compositions together with Curci, Edipan and Rugginenti.
In the years 2010-2013 she has been the director of the Milan Conservatory.


Sonia Bo