Who is MSK?
(...in case you care to know)
Marcello Sorce Keller (born Milan, Italy, in 1947) because of a German-Swiss mother and a jaunt to the US, started by chance and lasted over ten years,
feels now a foreigner even in the three Countries he is most familiar with: Italy, Switzerland and the USA. Initially he produced a lot of musical pollution as a pop music arranger and pianist.
Later, in order to make amend, and despite his laziness, somehow he managed to get a “Laurea” degree in sociology (Milan University), a degree in composition (Milan Conservatory), and a Ph.D. in
musicology (University of Illinois). He has always been interested in music and often tries to pass on to others his passion (which, according to a charming lady who left him years ago,
should be better described as an “obsession”). Over the years he has done a fair amount of teaching in the US, Italy, Australia, Malta and Switzerland. Now, while officially
in retirement, he feels quite honored to have been named Assozierter Forscher in the Institute für Musikwissenschaft at the University of Bern, in Switzerland.
When not sleeping (activity he enjoys without guilty feelings), he likes to practice various musical instruments, compose frivolous piano pieces, and write about intriguing musical questions. Over the years, overcoming his laziness, he succeeded in publishing a few books, articles, essays and reviews, in musicological journals, plus a few contributions to reference works (Utet, Garzanti, Einaudi, The New Grove, MGG, Garland Encyclopedia of World Music). He still likes his old little book Musica e sociologia (Milano, Ricordi, 1996). His last ones are What Makes Music European (Scarecrow 2012) and, With Linda Barwick, Italy in Australia's Music Landscape (Lyrebird 2012).
MSK lives in hiding at the outskirts of Lugano (Switzerland), without even the company of cats or dogs who would certainly have a hard time putting up with him.