Sylvano Bussotti (born 1 October 1931) is an Italian composer of contemporary music whose work is unusually notated and often brings up special problems in interpretation.

Born in Florence, Bussotti learned to play the violin as a child, becoming a prodigy. Later he studied at the Florence Conservatory (where he developed an opposition to modernism) and with Max Deutsch in Paris. As a composer he was influenced by the twelve-tone music of Anton Webern and later John Cage. Examples of his use of graphic notation in his pieces, often reflecting his personal life, include Lorenzaccio and La passion selon Sade. He partook in other academic disciplines including painting, graphic art, and journalism.

He has served as the artistic director of La Fenice, Venice. As a personality he is noted as flamboyant and occasionally shocking. He staged a flashy resignation from Venice Biennale in 1991, by bringing in a famous prostitute to give the keynote speech. He is also homosexual and has expressed this in his music as early as 1958. His outspokenness on the topic was unsettling to even some, then closeted, homosexual composers of the era. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.