Serafino

Serafino is a versatile composer seeking opportunities to write music for film and for institutions in need of a signature piece of music.

Serafino has had music flow through him since the age of three. He sang a song for his newborn sister when he cradled her for the first time. Around the same time he accompanied his parents to rehearsals for Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta The Pirates of Pinzants. He would bring with him wardrobe changes and sing and act out parts even before the actors had learned them themselves.

He began writing songs at the age of sixteen after returning home to the frozen Canadian community of Williams Lake after living for a year in Australia with his family. The process of composition was demystified upon taking up a personal study of Pierre Boulez’ serialism.
Shortly there after he started using a four-track recorder. He has been developing his recording techniques working as an engineer at Gladgnome Studios since 2007.

He has a large variety of music recorded and written both independently and in collaboration. He has recently completed his Communications degree at Simon Fraser University and applies the theories and ideas learned to musical settings. His composition Door Rude written for Piano, cello and flute is an example of this. Its form is based upon Communication theorist’s Harold Innis’ Bias of Communications Theory. A central theme is that as the speed of media exchange increased throughout history the information disseminated became more abundant and complex. In synthesizing this structure to the history of music a gradual harmonic expansion occurs. The twelve notes of the well tempered scale are introduced one by one.

For Serafino, inspiration is firmly rooted in experience. It can come from most anywhere: from observing a tree losing all its leaves over the course of ten minutes or an incidental conversation with a commuter on public transit. He is fascinated by how Charles Ives and Olivier Messian were able to take natural processes and press them into a practical composition. The natural world contains an infinite amount of inspiration from which an idea can be gleaned and plucked.

For the purposes of solo performance, he accompanies his lyrics with the guitar. The Bubbles is an example of this. He has also been commissioned to compose music for Canada’s air traffic control agency, NAVCAN. Surface to Infinity and MLAT – Helicopter Version are two samples from this project. He was responsible for arranging, recording and hiring musicians heard on these sessions.