Born in Balerna, Switzerland, Nadir Vassena (1970) studied composition in Milan with Bruno Zanolini and Alessandro Solbiati. In 1993 he participated in the Royaumont Composition Course held by Brian Ferneyhough. In 1992 Vassena won the Westdeutsche Rundfunk Competition in Cologne with Per una maschera for string quartet, and in 1994 a shared first prize from the Institut für Neue Musik der Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin with Nocturnes I-II-III for saxophone and piano. In 1996 he both won the Kompositionswettbewerb für Kammermusik Winterthur with Formulae for flute and harpsichord, and participated in the Gaudeamus Music Week, where his work Mysterium Lunae for choir a cappella was performed. Some of Vassena’s recent works are In tempore belli for guitar, Golem for flute and percussion, Aleph for five instruments, and Totem for orchestra. In 1997 he won second prize at the Mozartwettbewerb Salzburg-Mozarteum. The orchestral work Totem was selected for the 1997 Gaudeamus Music Week. That same year he participated in the Atelier de Blonay with Roland Moser and Michael Jarrell (Ensemble Contrechamps en résidence). He attended the Internationales KomponistInnenseminar (Klangforum Wien) under the direction of Sylvain Cambreling. In 1998 Vassena was awarded First Mention at the 9th Competition for Orchestral Composition in Besançon.