La Biennale di Venezia has appointed the composer Michele Tadini as artistic director of its music department for the two-year period 2027–2028. The decision was approved by the Biennale's board of directors, chaired by Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, which also thanked the outgoing director, Caterina Barbieri, for her work and results. The next International Festival of Contemporary Music under Tadini's direction will take place in Venice from 2 to 16 October 2027.

Born in Milan in 1964, Tadini is a composer, guitarist and professor of composition at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse in Lyon. He trained at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, studying guitar, composition and electronic music, and later attended classes with Franco Donatoni and a course at IRCAM in Paris in 1998. With Luca Francesconi he co-directed Agon, a Milan research and production centre for computer music, and he has also co-directed the Centro Tempo Reale in Florence and led the contemporary music section of IRMus at the Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado in Milan.

His output ranges from symphonic music and installations to scores for theatre, dance, radio, cinema and television, and his work has been presented at festivals across Europe, the United States, Latin America, Canada and Japan. Commissions have come from institutions including the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, RAI and Art Zoyd. His honours include the Prix Italia in 2008 for the radio work La Musica Nascosta and the Prix A.R.T.S. in 2011 for La Terza Luce. Among his best-known pieces are In a Blink of a Night, written for 100 electric guitars, and Tamburi nella Notte for five percussion ensembles.

Buttafuoco praised Tadini's research into electronic music and real-time interaction systems, and his long association with La Biennale as a composer, musician and author of works, performances and installations, including last year's Arcipelago Battiato tribute. Tadini said he felt gratitude and a deep sense of responsibility, adding that what he says and does must matter not only to him but to the public and to music itself, and that his project would take shape through dialogue and collaboration with the whole Biennale team.