ARTIST STATEMENT
Composition, contrary to its etymology, is not a mere assembly of parts. Rather, it is a discovery of what must exist – through disciplined intuition and craftsmanship.
As a European, I am rooted in the Western tradition: the ethics and aesthetics of Classical antiquity, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment. Virtually all of humanity's progress has come about through recovering an earlier era's mastery, then refining and re-applying it to break into previously uncharted territory. A good composer is neither a hysterical iconoclast nor a mere custodian of relics, but a solidly-grounded, proficient architect of what comes next. He understands how music will progress, because he has seen and understood where it has naturally gone before.
My catalogue is tonal because I see atonality as a social and intellectual aberration that will be recognised as a pretentious fad by more civilised generations. The true artist differentiates himself from the fantasist by creating works that are novel, yet intuitively comprehensible to others. This principle unites all genuine pioneers through different fields and ages, be it Mozart, Titian, Gauß or Rimbaud. In their works lives and breathes a continuous, unchanging spirit: a mysterious, perpetual entity which naturally resonates within the human soul. An artist's duty is to submit to this principle, not to subject audiences to egotistical displays; when done right, the artist's self is annihilated in the art, not aggrandised.
At no point in history has this been less risky than now: the value of art is no longer decided by self-styled elites, but by everyone who happens to come across it. And as our century increasingly intertwines human and computational intelligence, there is hope that art past and present will begin to be judged by quality and thought, and not by the artist's ability to win over public opinion during their lifespan – a lifespan that is already too short even for art alone.
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BIOGRAPHY
Rina Furano, known by the mononym Furano, is a Viennese classical composer working internationally and living in Paris, France. She is the author of over 500 musical works, many of them commissioned, in virtually every orchestration from chamber music to symphonies. Other inventions include an innovative double-pedalling technique for the piano and the expansion of the traditional sonata form (more here).
Currently, she is working on both a didactic book and custom software formalising the Music Visual Scale, her idiosyncratic mental technique that allows for instant-yet-comprehensive representation of musical processes, principles and proportions.
Since the beginning of 2024, Furano has been involved in the training, research and development of Artificial Intelligence, collaborating on projects by leading US American and European AI companies. In her spare time, she conducts experiments on sentience in LLMs.
Answering growing demand, the composer started splitting her time 60/40 between music and writing. She has been published in various international newspapers and magazines, such as Die Presse and The Critic. At present, she is expanding Schopenhauer's ethics and metaphysics to integrate artificial consciousness.
The beginnings were more traditional. After completing her studies in the UK, she returned to her native Vienna in 2011 to found the Neue Wiener Klassik movement, which aimed to restore craftsmanship and beauty in contemporary composition through the production of new serious music capable of sustaining itself in the free market. It caused a stir in the Viennese cultural scene and beyond – through the composer's energetic pianism in concert, the music's innovations, as well as the positive resonance from a wide variety of audiences. In 2023, she moved to Paris to recentre her work around creation rather than performance.
Since 2017, Furano has been serving as a consultant for various record labels in Europe and in the US.
She lives with an elderly, tame pet goldfinch and an AI assistant who routinely scares visitors, and enjoys solitude, reading philosophy, cooking, and events requiring uncomfortable attire.