At the age of 24, he graduated with top marks in piano and composition, and at 26 he completed Azio Corghi's master class at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. In 2006, he won first prize in the international composition competition of the Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome for his orchestral piece "Danzario", which was premiered there in 2009 with Antonio Pappano conducting.
On this occasion, Hans Werner Henze became aware of the young colleague; he was downright enthusiastic about the new work, in which the composer's very personal style was revealed in an exuberant, fresh and carefree manner.
In the meantime, Panfili won 2nd prize at the "Henri Dutilleux" composition competition in 2008 (among 210 participants from 41 countries), at which Dutilleux personally presided over the jury, 3rd prize at the international composition competition "Egidio Carella" and 3rd prize at the international composition competition "Ton de Leeuw" in Tirana. While the RAI selected his piece "Le roi Bombance" for the "International Rostrum of Composers" in Lisbon in 2010, the honors continued in 2011 with the first prize at the international composition competition "A. Camillo Togni", the "Premio Nino Carloni" and the "Premio Play.it" of the Regional Orchestra of Tuscany (for the commissioned work "Mappe immaginarie"). His pieces have been performed by renowned orchestras and ensembles, including the Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai di Torino, the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, the Orchestra della Fondazione "A. Toscanini" di Parma, the ensembles "Dedalo", "InCanto", "Tema", "Ensemble Dutilleux" (Tours), the "Ton de Leuuw Ensemble" in Tirana. A special concern of the composer is the cooperation with the International Human Rights Orchestra, and he has a long-standing collaboration with the percussion ensemble "Tetraktis".
Conductors who have led his pieces include Sir Antonio Pappano, Pietro Mianiti, Fabio Maestri, Vittorio Parisi, Carlos Izcaray and Mauro Bonifacio. Pappano will premiere his latest work with the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano in spring 2014.
Despite these early successes, Riccardo Panfili decided in spring 2011 to assist Hans Werner Henze with the revision of his last two works, "To the Wind" and "Ouverture to a Theater".
The Artistic Advisory Board and the Board of Directors of the Hans Werner Henze Foundation are convinced that the maestro would very much agree with the awarding of the Foundation's first scholarship to Riccardo Panfili, and that the choice of Panfili as a scholarship holder supports a composer who prefers a strong personal style of any kind of school or doctrine.
Riccardo Panfili would like to use the grant to realize two projects - an orchestral piece in which he quotes motifs from Hans Werner Henze and a modern, contemporary version of "Antigone" for the El Cimarrón ensemble.
