took her piano and composition diplomas in 1972 and 1974 at S.Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. In 1975-76 she followed an advanced course held by Goffredo Petrassi at the Accademia di S.Cecilia. She has won several international composition competitions (Gaudeamus 1982, I.S.C.M. Budapest 1986, I.S.C.M. Essen 1995) .Her works have been performed in Europe, in U.S.A, Canada, China, Japan, Australia and South America in prestigious musical centres such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Metropolitan and Carnegie Hall in New York, Teatro Real in Madrid, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Concertgebouw, the Accademia Nazionale di S.Cecilia in Rome, the F.Liszt Academy in Budapest, the Central Conservatory of Beijing (China), the Krakow Music Academy, the "La Fenice" theater in Venice etc. She has been invited to the most important festivals of contemporary music and has got several commissions from the Radio Orchestras of Rome, Naples and Milano, from the National Academy of S.Cecilia, from the French Ministry of Culture, from the 4th Munchener Biennale etc. Her works (about 70, for soilists, chamber group, orchestra and theater) have been published mostly by Bmg-RICORDI and RAITRADE and recorded by RICORDI, EDT, NICCOLO', UNMUS (Canada) and TIRRENO (Suisse). She has been invited to make lectures in USA (at Northwestern University, Julliard School, Wayne State University, Columbia University, Chicago University, Berkeley etc.), in China (Hong Kong, Shangai, Beijing) and in all Europe. For 3 years (2001-2002-2003) has organized, with a terrific success, the "Festival of italian New Music" in Beijing, on account of Italian Institute of Culture, programming works by more then 50 italian composers. Since 1978 is Art Director of the contemporary music Festival "Nuovi Spazi Musicali" in Rome; from 1993 until 1997 she has been in the board of the Venice Biennale and, from August 1996 until December 1999, Art Director of the lyric theater V.Basso in Ascoli Piceno. She has been Vice Director of S.Cecilia Conservatory in Rome from December 1999 until September 2005. One of her most important works, "CANTATA PER LA PACE" (for large orchestra, choir and reciter- length 28'-), commissioned by Vatican, has been premiered with great success in Rome on 30 December 2000 to close the series "Concerts for the Great Jubilee" and repeated in Brasilia , St. Petersburg , Seoul, Beijng , Taipei, Rostov and Kiev. In December 2005 her piece "MUSICA PER SCENA" has been performed with great success in Rome by the "Orchestra Regionale del Lazio" conducted by LU JIA in the new "Park of Music" built by Renzo Piano. In 2006 has been premiered in Rome by Duo Alterno, the piece “La giornata di Betty Boop” , for voice and piano, (text by Sandro Cappelletto)while in 2007 has had place in Rome the world premiere of “Madre ragazza” (text by the famous Italian writer Dacia Maraini), a piece for chamber orchestra and recite performed by the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese conducted by Enrico Marocchini (reciter Milena Vukotic The 2008 has been full of performances (about 50); the most important in Taranto (on 16 th February), where has been premiered “Un'ansia di pace”, for large orchestra, choir and reciter. In Rome has had place, on 3 rd Dicember, the world premiere of “Ho scritto una canzone”, for string, by the “Gruppo Strumentale Musica d'Oggi” conducted by Alberto Maria Giuri, in a concert dedicated to Ennio Morricone for his 80th birthday. The last one performance, on 28 th Dicember, has had place in the wonderful Noto's Cathedral, with a new work for double quartet of saxophones, polyphonic choir and drums, titled “Nobilissimo ballo”. In the 2009 are scheduled several performances in Copenaghen, Budapest , York , Moscow and Linz (where will be premiered a piece for soprano and bayan commissioned by the Festival 2040”). In the spring of this year will be presented also a new CD monographic CD published by RaiTrade with 6 recent works.

Notes about Ada Gentile's musical language. (by Michele Porzio)
Ada Gentile's music reveals a particular interest in a delicate play of colours. Her compositions nearly always evolve within the lightest of sound textures, indeed within a somewhat limited range of sound. Between those limits she creates a dense and continous movement which revolves round a number of acoustic kernels. The result is a sort of refined sonic illusionism. Listening to her works one realizes that her prime concern is to achieve a vibrant sonic impressionism, indeed this is what lends aesthetic and structural unity to all her works. Her musical language reflects a delicate yet intense exploration of the minimal parameters od sound agglutination. There are thus frequent oscillations of micro-interval panels, including intervals of a quarter of a tone, in not infrequent moments of intense expressive concentration. In such sections the music remains at low volume, between "piano" and "pianissimo", in order to obtain a polyphony of suffused sounds, counterpointed by the liquid mobility of the rhythm. The rhythm is often a vital element in the balance of the composition, creating complex assimetrical patterns which are for the most part reabsorbed, against a background of intimate, contemplative stillness. The rhythmic movement also brings about the transition towards sections of a contrasting character, in dialectic opposition to the first sections, with a wider sound range within which polyrhythmic and multiple instrumental lines are superimposed, and where varied metrical schemes of an "ostinato" type appear. The mobility of these "horizontal" and linear figures thus dominates the harmonic vertical scansion. Ada Gentile's compositions are characterized not so much by thematic cells or plastic figures, but rather by musical patterns, which are immersed in a kaleidoscope of changing tints.