Meet Lorenzo Sidoti | Composer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lorenzo Sidoti and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lorenzo, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I come from Rome, Italy, and half of my family comes from Messina in Sicily. I think that the historical importance of the city of Rome and the cultural melting pot that always characterised Sicily had a huge impact on me, as a human being, and my art. I’ve grown up in a family full of music that has always mixed genres, we are used to starting the day with Mozart, having lunch with Jethro Tull, having a break with Miles Davis and ending the day with The Beatles. That mix of sounds and enormous differences between Rome and Sicily brought me the curiosity to change, create, mix and connect different genres and aspects of music, and at the same time the curiosity to mix cultures from all over the world. One of the sentences that represent me best is a verse by Walt Whitman:

Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Well, pursuing a career in the music industry is never easy and to arrive here, but staying where I am and going forward, is really hard. What makes me go through all the difficulties and the hard times? I love composing music, I love scoring movies, and I really love my job even when tough moments hit me. I love challenges and when it is hard, I have always had people around that can help me to go forward. I think that one of the things that I’m most proud of in my work is that I can recognize myself in every piece of music I’ve ever written. In every project, I always create a connection with the directors and their stories, I blend myself with them and let them be part of me in order to grow and have a score that can also reflect their ideas.

I am always changing and growing up, every feature or documentary is a chance to renew.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
As Roman, surely, I would be taking them around sightseeing the glorious monuments of the Eternal City. I can easily say that I would take him to the Forum or the Colosseum or to the Vatican Museums but apart from that, I would surely take them to two not-so-touristy places. The first would be the “Museum of Centrale Montemartini” that has a magnificent collection of ancient Roman statues, marbles and mosaics displayed in the old power station of the city. It is exciting to see the contrast between the ancient Roman art and the industrial architecture of the late 1800s.

The second place would be “Cinecittà Studios” where a great part of the history of cinema was made. It is a place where you can dream and walk like you are in a movie, living the sets of movies like Ben-Hur or Gangs of New York. I would like to come to LA to visit the studios and see the differences between Cinecittà and Universal’s. Going where cinema history was and is still made is like entering an exciting engine of stories, art, dreams and illusions. Those are places where I can connect with my child-self who went for the first time to the movie theatre and began to dream.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
That’s a tough question because there are so many people that I must thank for supporting me and giving me love through the years. I obviously have to thank my family but in order not to make an enormous list of people I think that for supporting my continuous growth and my never-ending curiosity I have to thank:

– my girlfriend Francesca who since we were adolescents always pushed me on getting better and to also greet myself sometimes not always being so hard on my work and my career.

– my teachers Bernardo Nardini, Davide Farace and Gianluca Podio who always had been tough and caring and encouraged me to experiment with different languages of music.

– my band “So Does Your Mother“ which was my first music composition laboratory where to experiment with composing, arranging and playing all sorts of weird and funny music.

– directors Paolo Bianchini and Myles Ross who believed in my art and my skills to score their features and let me fly into the fantastic, dreamy, and magical world that is a movie.

Website: www.lorenzosidotimusic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lorenzosidoti_composer/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjZTEKEJIgCw-z19W1Gj2Xw

Other: IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7957116/ Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/1MqzlbgIT6tc0Vp4kbkGer?si=lg0QXR5NT2W8HzAlWAwERw

Image Credits
IDIO photography Margherita Castriota photography