Fausto Romitelli was born on 1 February 1963 in Gorizia. He studied composition at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan and subsequently took part in courses at the Accademia Chigiana di Siena with Franco Donatoni and at the Scuola Civica di Milano. He moved to Paris in 1991, where he became a student of Hugues Dufourt and Gérard Grisey. From 1993 to 1995 he was compositeur en recherche at IRCAM.

Romitelli achieved successes in numerous European competitions, and his music has been performed by ensembles such as Berg Orchestra and at festivals such as the Festival d’Automne (Paris), Musica nova Helsinki, Steirischer Herbst (Graz), Venice Biennale and the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. His visionary video opera An Index of Metals (2003) was awarded the Franco Abbiati Prize of Italian music critics in 2004.

He died aged 41 on 27 June 2004 in Milan following a long battle with cancer. (wikipedia)