Composers

Massimo's music training, which benefited from the guidance of various pupils of M° Bettinelli, culminated in the Diploma in Composition gained at the Milan Conservatory (in 1995), where three years before he had already attained the Diploma in Piano after the relative course with Jole Mantegazza and Anita Porrini (one of the favourite pupils of Cortot and Bendetti Michelangeli), and perfected his piano skills under the guidance of Valerio Premuroso. Further academic experiences of his took place at the Petrassi Academy, the University of Central England -Birmingham-, and the University of Leeds.
In Massimo's research the attention to the avant-garde movement is filtered through the quest for a music syntax whose organicity is synonymous with “perceivable necessity” of any element generating the symbolic dynamics of sound images.
So far, inestimable and inspirational collaborators in this pursuit of his have been such artists as La Scala String Quartet (La Scala Theatre, Serate Musicali di Milano), Peter Bradley-Fulgoni (St.Martin in the Fields - London), Wiener Virtuosen (soloists from the Wiener Philharmoniker), Maurizio Simeoli, Ensemble Strumentale Scaligero (soloists from La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra), Trio Dansi (Bocconi University, Radio3RAI), Mariangela Vacatello (Carnegie Hall-New York), Duo Favalessa-Semeraro (Società Filarmonica di Trento), Duo Costa-Filistovich (Amici del Loggione della Scala), Andrea Cavuoto (Villa BelgiojosoBonaparte - Milano), Arcturus Trio, I Virtuosi Italiani (University of Nottingham), etc.

Peter Bradley-Fulgoni, in the liner notes to the CD “PianOLYPHONY” (Foxglove Audio, spring 2012), wrote: “Di Gesu's music stands out in the doldrums of our present musical and cultural malaise.”

From a letter by Peter Johnson (musicologist, Professor at Birmingham City University): “Di Gesu imposes upon himself the very highest standards of discipline. His breadth and depth of knowledge, skills and insight enable him to produce compositions which can be highly intricate yet always effective and accurately heard. In particular, his harmonic sense within a genuinely contemporary idiom is impressive.”
From a letter by Bruno Bettinelli (composer): “For a long time I have known and esteemed M° Massimo Di Gesu whom I consider musician of high level and person of great cultural commitment.”
From Quirino Principe’s review of La Scala Theatre world premiere of Verdigo (Sole 24 Ore, 2 June 2013): “He is a composer working in a stylistic perspective of refined cultural reflection, focusing on the symbols hidden in the sound and in the musical syntax. [...] His work impressed the audience, even the youngest members of it, who are seldom used to "strong" music (which in this case, due to its emotional dramatic contrasts, was strongest). I was particularly compelled by the middle movement, which surely (this is the vocational aim of the artist) had its very scope in fascination.”
An author of various publications as a musicologist, alongside a keen commitment to teaching, Massimo cultivates also an eager interest in poetry and computer-based drawing, as seen in the cover of the CD “PianOLYPHONY” (Foxglove Audio) and in the 'graphic titles' for "Geometria di un diletto" (edition db).