Elisabetta Brusa

At the Milan Conservatory she formally studied Composition with Bruno Bettinelli (who also taught famous Italian conductors like Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Muti) and Azio Corghi, graduating in 1980.

She then taught composition at the Conservatoires of Vicenza, Mantova and Brescia before teaching at the Conservatorio of Milan in 1985.

She also received instruction from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Hans Keller.

These include two Symphonies, a Requiem, a Stabat Mater, the tone poem Florestan, based on the Florestan side of Robert Schumann's personality; the Nittemero Symphony, inspired by the words night and day in ancient Greek; the tone poem Messidor, which alludes strongly to (without actually quoting) Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (the work is dedicated to her husband), a Fanfare, an "Adagio", "Firelights", a "Requiescat", "Favole", "Merlin", "Simply Largo, all of which for orchestras of different sizes, among other works.

Brusa describes her musical style as "close to Neo-Tonality and in particular to Neo-Romanticism, but in the original sense of the word, which is nowadays often confusedly assimilated to other ones," and her harmony as "essentially pandiatonic with panchromatic moments."