STEFANIA TALLINI

PIANIST, COMPOSER, ARRANGER

Stefania Tallini is an internationally acclaimed award-winning musician, who has a brilliant career in the area of jazz and classical music, with incursions into the world of Brazilian music involving collaborations with the great artists of Música Popular Brasileira (MPB).

Apart from her solo career she has collaborated with many illustrious artistes such as Guinga, Bruno Tommaso, Gabriele Mirabassi, Enrico Intra, Enrico Pieranunzi, Maurizio Giammarco, Javier Girotto, Salvatore Maiore, Remì Vignolò, Bert Joris, Matthieu Chazarenc, Andy Gravish, Gabriele Coen, Michele Rabbia, Massimo Nunzi, Tiago Amud, Hans Teuber, Marcus Tardelli, Sergio Galvao, Civica Jazz Band, Keith Middleton, Aaron Marcelus, Tim Smithsoneon Smith, Davi Viera, and Chorolé. In the classical field she has collaborated with Corrado Giuffredi, Simone Nicoletta, Phoebe Ray, Natalia Suharevic and Maurizio D’Alessandro.

Festivals and Exhibitions

Stefania has performed at many important festivals and shows, which include: the Yerba Buena Jazz Festival at San Francisco (USA), the Felicja Blumental International Music Festival at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Israel), the Christopher Summer Festival in Vilnius (Lithuania), the Weltmusikfestival Grenzenlos of Murnau and the YVP Jazztage at Ulm (Germany), the Ravello Festival, Clusone Jazz, Iseo Jazz, the Roccella Jonica Jazz Festival, Atina Jazz, Villa Celimontana Jazz, Lucca Jazz Donna, Ancona Jazz, Piano City Milano, and the Casa Del Jazz (Italy). In the classical field she has performed at: Società Del Quartetto of Bergamo, Amici Della Musica of Milan, the Concerti del Quirinale at Rome, and the Franz Liszt Festival at Albano Laziale.

Concourse

She has received numerous awards and recognitions as a pianist, a composer and an arranger in many major international competitions: LagoMaggioreJazz 1999 for solo piano, Viva il Jazz in Milan with her trio in 2000, the “International Competition for Jazz Orchestra Arranging and Composition” of Barga in 2001 with her song “Minor Tango” that she arranged for a Big Band, the Trofeo Italiano del Jazz Django d’or 2004 in the “new artistes” section, and the prize for “Best Creativity” at the International Film Music Award La Stele D’Argento 2005

National Events

Stefania Tallini has been a guest at several events of great national importance, such as the 2008 International Celebration of Women’s Day in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano; the Concerti del Quirinale at the Quirinal Palace of Rome (in 2006, 2008 and 2014) broadcast live by Radio 3 Rai and by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU); the Speciale Festa Della Musica of Radio 3 in 2013; Il Jazz é Donna at the Piccolo Teatro Strehler of Milan, where she performed Minor Tango, which she had arranged for an orchestra, as a guest of Enrico Intra’s Civica Jazz Band; Il Jazz Italiano at L’Aquila in 2017; and “Jazz Instructions for Use” at the Teatro Sistina of Rome during the Notte Bianca event in 2004.

Compositions

Stefania has composed music for Italian, Brazilian and American classical musicians that have been performed at important international events such as the Festival of Nations, the Cité De La Musique in Strasbourg, the Universidad De Las Artes (Havana), the Westerbeck Recital Hall of Pasadena (California), the Performing Arts Center at PCC in Portland (California), the Boston Court center in Pasadena (California). These musicians include the clarinettists Corrado Giuffredi, Simone Nicoletta and Maurizio D’Alessandro; the American bassoonist Phoebe Ray; the US chamber trio Wild Trio; and the Brazilian wind quintet Quinteto Villa Lobos. Her piece “New Life” has been included in the Real Book of Italian Jazz Standards, which includes compositions by some of the most important Italian jazz musicians.

Projects

She has participated in important projects which include: “La Grande Pianola” directed by Bruno Tommaso (featuring 50 pianos playing live in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo (Multirifrazioni Records, 1994), the DVD published by l’Espresso “Jazz. Istruzioni per l’uso” by Massimo Nunzi dedicated to women jazz composers, the DVD Corrado Giuffredi Duets produced by Treetone, featuring three of her pieces played as a duo.

She is member of the “Worldwide Association of Professional Female (WAoPF)” in New York.

Theater and Dance

In a theatrical and literary context she has collaborated as a pianist and as a composer with several performers and authors, including: Mariangela Melato and Michele Placido (Odio e amo – Spoon River); the American writer Katherine Dunn and the Spanish writer Lucìa Extebarrìa at the Basilica of Maxentius Literature Festival alongside the actresses Antonia Liskova and Sabrina Impacciatore; the “Excursus” Contemporary Dance Company for the show “Moods”, which was entirely based on her music; Davide Riondino for the review Suoni Di… Versi.

Cinema

As regards cinema and film, she composed the soundtracks for the movies “Samara“, “Ombre di Luce” and “Ribelli” by the director Massimo D’Orzi produced by Gigante Cinema. She performed the soundtrack for pianoforte of the short film “Rapsodia in Blue” (2018) by Maria Carolina Salomè (composed by Antongiulio Priolo), which won the award for Best Foreign Short Film at the “Lady Filmmakers Festival” of Beverly Hills, in addition to awards at the South Film and Arts Academy Festival of Rancagua (Chile) and has been nominated for the Gold Movie Awards in London.

Television e Radio

Her television appearances include the presentation of her album Maresìa on RaiDue and the Rai.it online channel and her performance with Guinga on the Lithuanian national television broadcaster Lietuvos Radijas ir Televizija.

She has presented her records as a guest performing live on many international radio stations, which interviewed her and even dedicated entire programmes to her music. Among them are: Radio Switzerland, Radio France, Deutschlandradio Berlin, Radio Bremen, Argentina Guagua Jazz Radio, RTVE Radio Nacional Española, Radio KUTX of Austin Texas, LRT Radijas of Lithuania, and in Italy RTL Radio, RAI International and Radio Vaticana. Over the years the Italian channels RaiRadio1 and RaiRadio3 have broadcast Stefania Tallini’s music both live and via rotation.

For years RaiRadio1 and RaiRadio3 are broadcasting her music live and in rotation.

Clubs

She has performed in some of the most prestigious jazz clubs in the world: Le Duc des Lombards in Paris, Birdland in Hamburg, the Brotfabrik Jazz Club in Frankfurt, the Triple Door in Seattle (USA), Olympia Jazz Central in Washington (USA), Jerusalem Zappa in Jerusalem, the Unterfahrt Jazz Club of Munich, Das Theaterforum of Gauting, Jazz-Schmiede of Düsseldorf, and the Zehntstadel of Leipheim (Germany), Alexanderplatz of Rome.

Academic Titles

Her academic titles are: A degree in Pianoforte from the Conservatory of S. Cecilia of Rome and a degree in Jazz Arrangement and Big Band Composition from the Licinio Refice Conservatory of Frosinone. She has attended numerous masterclasses and seminars held by Franco D’Andrea, Marc Johnson, Enrico Rava, Stefano Battaglia and Bruno Tommaso. She is a member of the Worldwide Association of Female Professionals (WAoFP) of New York.

Didactic

Stefania was a teacher of jazz piano for several years at the Conservatory of Pesaro, and she is currently a professor at the Conservatory of Benevento. She conceived and performed in the masterclasses entitled: “Improvisation for classical musicians“, “Composition and arrangement for small groups“, “A course of arrangement for singers”.

Here are some of the many accolades she has received in the Italian and international press:

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“…one of the best international jazz musicians, so much so that her composition New Life is included in the Italian “Real Book”… you listen to all of The Illusionist in one go and when it ends you want to push the “start” button again.”

Alceste Ayroldi - Jazzitalia

“A superior talent on today’s jazz scene. A multifaceted personality, who possesses an outstanding piano technique and, above all, extraordinary compositions skills… Intense, almost tangible perfumes, which are able to penetrate deeply thanks to a message that is highly mature poetic and, if you will forgive the over-used term, beautiful. Stefania has a stupendous touch, and the timbre is so round and clear that her instrument seems to sing, while her technique is based on the admirable agility of her fingers. Her stylistic approach… reflects an immediately recognizable originality. “The Illusionist” is thus a great record, which in my opinion has every right to be a candidate for the best record of the year.”

Massimo Tarabelli - Ancona Jazz

“A highly inventive composer and pianist.”

Andy Hamilton - The Wire, UK

“Stefania Tallini is a pianist of great talent and great skills as a composer and arranger.”

Jerome Wilson - Cadence Magazine, USA

“The Illusionist is a record which was written without intellectual abstractions, but with its solid roots in interiority it has a sound that is typical of sincerity, dedication, and intellectual honesty… These original compositions denote an unmistakable style and an exhaustive musical research, not only in the cultures of other countries of the world, but first of all within oneself. There are not only jazz colours, but also voices that come from far away, melodic suggestions, and the echo of Western cultured music, to create all the different faces of a soul.”

Paola Parri - Piano Solo

“The album reveals that the various elements in Tallini’s style have achieved a compact and fluid vision and that they are a natural part of her expressive manner: the intimate dimension of the solo piano, the close attention to the writing, the measure and general balance of the improvisations all create the conditions for a well-structured and coherent discourse.”

Fabio Ciminiera - Jazz Convention

“… with her music Tallini penetrates immediately to the very heart of things, and her compositional research becomes the maximum expression of her inner self. Now that she has released her fourth album, the pianist has been confirmed as one of the purest exponents of Italian jazz: she pays attention to every detail of her music, from the writing to the arranging; the expressive research, the passion for the instrument and she has made the teachings of the great pianists of the past her own, all of which makes of her a very elegant and concrete musician. The voice of Gabriele Mirabassi on the clarinet – probably the best specialist of the instrument who is currently on the scene – is the perfect way to represent the music of Maresìa. The vision of the melody, like a story to be told, unites two artistic events that merge and become complementary.”

Andrea Scaccia - Left

“The album The Illusionist is of an excellent stature, as it brings together with skill, grace and clarity of intent, all of its different souls: the improviser, the sagacious organizer of sound materials, the lover of dance and ethnic references, and the shadowy reflective one. Here is amazement and expectation, the heat of discovery and of finding something that is both known and unknown. Stefania Tallini manages to give voice to all this. She is truly brava.”

Vincenzo Martorella - Jazzit

“… in Italy she has become a phenomenon, and she is in no way inferior to the great masters of jazz lyricism.”

M. F. - JAC, Spagna

“…one of the most beautiful situations in Italian jazz. (…) A spontaneous inclination towards composition, refined technique, refined taste, a full awareness of her expressive means, great ease of improvisation, the utmost equilibrium in alternating improvisation with written parts: these are the main qualities of Stefania Tallini as they stand out in full of her latest and splendid work Maresìa.”

Gerlando Gatto - A proposito di Jazz

“She belongs by right to the new generation of Italian jazz that crosses the boundaries of other genres, inventing a “total music”, in harmony with globalized ears… A beautiful test of personality.”

Claudio Sessa - Corriere della Sera

“… with a subtle and nuanced elegance, she has logic, intuition, a willingness to take risks, improvisational talent to spare and a limpid quality of touch.”

Jazz Podium, Germania