Dr. Elia Andrea Corazza (PhD) (aka Elijax) is a conductor, composer, pianist electronic musician and musicologist. He holds a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Bologna (Italy), and master’s degrees in pianoforte, conducting and composition. He studied conducting with Gabriele Ferro in Fiesole and with Donato Renzetti in Pescara (Italy), at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena (Italy) and at the Tanglewood Music Center (Lenox, MA, U.S.A.).
In April 2025, Elia conducted several performances of L’Elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, one of the most prominent opera houses in Italy, achieving a great success and sold-out shows.
During 2024 Elia worked as assistant of the Maestro Gabriele Ferro for the world premiere of Sintropia 2 (from il Lai dell’Universo), on December 5th 2024 at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. On this production Elia wrote the score and the performance materials, the arrangement, the production of the recorded electronic and directing the live electronics during the concert.
In September 2023, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo commissioned Elia to compose and conduct Tournedos alla Rossini, an original opera based on orchestrations of piano, chamber and operatic music by Gioachino Rossini. The opera is based on an idea, libretto and dramaturgy by Paolo Vittorio Montanari. The opera had over sixty performances in December 2023, in February 2024 and in May 2025.
In 2013 Elia had his debut with the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna (Italy), conducting a concert on music by Maderna, and in 2014 Elia conducted the same orchestra in the first staging (world premiere) of La Serva Padrona (Schott Music, 2014) by Paisiello-Respighi, discovered and edited by him. From 2015 to 2020 Elia has been principal conductor of the Junior, Chamber and Symphony Orchestras at the Conservatory Torrefranca in Vibo Valentia (Italy).
In addition to the above-mentioned Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and of the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Maestro Corazza has conducted: the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, the Musici of the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna, the Virtuozy Lvova of L’viv (Ukraine), the orchestra of the Associazione Filarmonica del Veneto, La Grecia Orchestra of Lamezia Terme, the Orchestra of the Società Filarmonica in Portogruaro (Venice); Maestro Corazza has also conducted numerous juvenile orchestras, such as the Santa Cecilia Youth Orchestra (Portogruaro), the Symphony, Chamber and Junior Orchestras of the Torrefranca Conservatory, the Galilei Orchestra, the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, and, as assistant to the principal conductor Federico Cortese, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras and the Harvard-Radcliffe University Orchestra.
Elia’s repertoire ranges from Baroque to contemporary symphonic, operatic and balletic music. His compositions include a variety of genres, from Neoclassical to Electronic. As a pianist Elia is specialized in Italian operatic repertoire and 20th chamber Century music. Since 2015, in a duo with the Italian violinist Emy Bernecoli, Elia has performed on various international tours in the USA (Italian Embassy, Washington DC; Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress; McNeir Auditorium, Georgetown University; Steinway Concert Hall, Miami), Africa (Auditorium Verdi, Addis Ababa), the Middle East (Teatro della Casa d’Italia, Istanbul) and Europe (Haus der Musik, Stuttgart). In Italy, the duo recently performed at the Sala Fontana of the Museo del Novecento in Milan (NoMus, Società del Quartetto di Milano), at the Respighi Festival in Bologna (Accademia Filarmonica), and on November 14, 2024, the duo performed at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.
His musicological research includes Neoclassical Music, Serial Music, 18th and 19th Century Opera, Ballet Music, Performing Practice, Music and Fascism. Elia has held scholarships at the Fondazione Cini (Venice, Italy), at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, USA), at the Paul Sacher Stiftung (Basel, Switzerland), at Yale University (New Haven, CT, USA, a post-doctoral fellowship at the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress (Washington DC, USA), and, recently, a residential fellowship at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena (Italy).
Elia has been invited to give lectures at international musicological conferences, including: XIX Congress of the International Musicological Society, Rome, Parco della Musica, 2012; “Rethinking Stravinsky: Sounds and Gestures of Modernism”, University of Fisciano-Salerno, 2012; “The Young Stravinskij and the Paris of Matisse”, Ferrara, Teatro Comunale, 2014; “Stravinskij in Italy. In Memory of Roman Vlad”, Fondazione Cini, Venice, 2014; “Violence, Trauma and Transformation”, Kluge Center, Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA, 2014; lectio “Diaghilev’s ‘Time Traveling’ Italian Scores”, Kluge Center, Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA, 2015; American Musicological Society Conference 2015, Louisville KY, USA; International Conference on O. Respighi, Respighi Conservatory, Latina, 2016; International Conference “Max Reger and Ottorino Respighi – Beyond the Borders”, Italo-German Center for European Excellence, Villa Vigoni, Loveno di Menaggio, 2022; Conference 2023 Chigiana 100, on the centenary of its foundation: “Training, Research and Musical Production from the Twentieth Century to the Future”, Accademia Chigiana, Siena, 22-24 November 2023; I Respighi a Palazzo, Accademia Musicale Chigiana, November 14, 2024.
Sometimes under his pseudonym Elijax, Elia composed music for film, documentaries, short movies, advertising and dance halls. The short movie Moto perpetuo (directed by Camillo Valle) resulted prizewinner in several competitions: Premio Montano (Verona, 2015), Blackbird Film Festival (New York City, NY, U.S.A., 2015), Clorofilla Film Festival (Grosseto, 2015), and nominated at the David di Donatello short movies (2014). Elia’s “Super 8” and “Bruno Van Dyck” for Expo 2.0 resulted prizewinner at “Visioni Ambientali” Cineteca di Bologna (2017, third prize), and finalist at the Video Concorso Pasinetti in Venice (2017). In 2021 his electronic compositions Finalmente Alighieri!, Passacaglia Poetica, Beatrice Glitch, composed on Dante Alighieri’s words performed by Emy Bernecoli, resulted prizewinners at the international competition “De Institutione Musica” promoted by SIMC (Italian Society for Contemporary Music). Further information on Elijax electronic compositions is available on www.elijax.com
Elia is currently tenured full-time Professor of Score reading at the prestigious Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, Italy.
Here you can download the CV in pdf format.
