Application
Coordinator Composition Department
University of the Arts The Hague

My name is Stefano Gullo and I'm an Italian composer based in Den Haag.

I started my musical studies in Rome at the Saint Louis College of music in Jazz guitar and as minor Classical composition and after the bachelor I moved to the conservatory of Santa Cecilia for the master in Multimedia soundtracks.

In the 2021 my will to move abroad brought me to the Royal conservatoire of Den haag, becoming in this way the first Jazz composition student and giving the start to what now became the master program of Jazz composition at Koncon.

In this three years the feeling that I established my second home in this institution is becoming stronger and stronger;
starting from the old building close to Theresiastraat, where I met my first fellow students finishing my studies in the new majestic Amare building.

The fact that the entire conservatory is hosting in one building all the departments seemed to me the strongest point of this university, something that other institutions may not have.

And from the moment I was the first and only Jazz composition student and there wasn't a real study program,
the then head of the department Susanne Abbuehl suggested me to create together a prototype plan giving me carte blanche to find what would be good for me and in general for a composition student.

With this assumption, my main intention has been to get an hybrid path that would put me in connection with as many departments as possible, especially with the composition department; taking advantage of the fact that I could find everything I need in one building.

Starting from having lessons with a teacher from the composition department as Trevor Grahl and teachers from the Jazz department, at first Martin Fondse and at the end Claudio De Rosa.

From attending the Studium Generale with the Composition department students and listening to their presentations; to assist the big band rehearsals of the Jazz department musicians.

And mostly, meeting as many as possible students from the Composition and all the other departments;
especially during these talks with my fellow students, I started to know which are the dynamics of this musicians and composers inside and outside of the building.

I consider my self as a good observer, able to friendly interact with whoever I have to speak with;
and in these years I learned a lot about the wishes of my fellow students.

Discussing with them what we like about the conservatory and what we would like to implement in our study plan, what are our projects and ideas and how to bring our musical identity outside in the real world.

And that has been something that made a deep impression on me; 
like meeting many students from the composition department that are terrific contemporary composers, but capable to write Latin American music or even code a software, and likewise Jazz composers that know the roots of Jazz music but are also passionate for the XX's century music and Sonology's techniques.

This gave me the perception that the key for most of the students is the will to learn from different fields in order to create our unique musical style.

Nowadays I'm still living here in Den Haag, alive and kicking, managing to live thanks to two main resources; and I consider myself pretty lucky with what I'm doing;

Firstly with music. 
I'm bringing on my projects, playing the role of project leader; 
I mainly have to manage big ensembles and here in The Netherlands I formed an Hybrid Big Band called "Bamboocha Drama" that is formed by musicians from the Jazz, Classical and Early music department of the Koncon.

Mainly we recorded in the Studios of the conservatory in collaboration with students of the Art of Sound but now I'm ambitiously aiming to bring our music outside.

This has been a great way to learn things in practice; managing this ensemble of 20 or 30 people, depending on the repertoire, gave me the perseverance to build my own musical career, being organized with a problem solving mentality and able to work under pressure.

Secondly I'm working as Horeca in Amare Theater.
I love the Theater and I started to know this building perfectly; even if is a part-time job it teach me a lot on how to work indipendently and is insane the amount of performances I could assist and get motivated from it, assisting to the NDT, RO, Metropole Orkest and many other different guests.

I'm conscious that I can give a good contribution to the Composition department, as a Coordinator I would be happily present in the path of the students, being professional but also understanding towards their needs and their insecurity; because like them I probably passed the same struggles.

And mainly I've the feeling that I could be a supportive identity; not only inside the walls of the Royal conservatoire, but also outside in the real world.

During my studies I always appreciated when someone from my institution came to support me, even if was only to assist to one of my performances and I would be happy to show the same support to the students with their project.

Not only because I'm confident that I will care to see them succeed in their career, but mostly because of my strong curiosity and will to discover new composers and new music;
in order to still learn about composition.