STEFANIA TALLINI

PIANIST, COMPOSER, ARRANGER

Stefania Tallini is one of the most appreciated jazz pianists and composers, who has defined her career in a peculiar and original piano and compositional language in which influences from jazz, classical and Brazilian music blend. She is the author of 11 records as a leader and has collaborated and collaborates with great names on the world scene, such as: Jaques Morelenbaum, Gregory Hutchinson, Guinga, Gabriel Grossi, John Taylor, Enrico Pieranunzi, Dino and Franco Piana, Stefano Di Battista, Gabriele Mirabassi, Roberto Gatto, Dario Deidda, Michele Rabbia, Javier Girotto, Enrico Intra and the Civic Jazz Band, Tiago Amud, Hans Teuber. And in the classical field: Corrado Giuffredi, Alessandro Carbonare, Simone and Federico Nicoletta, Phoebe Ray, Natalia Suhaveric. Her music was performed, among other things, at the Festival of Nations, at the Cité De La Musique in Strasbourg, at the Universidad De Las Artes in Havana, at the Pharos Art Foundation in Cyprus. She has performed several times as part of the Quirinale Concerts and in the most important international festivals, in Italy, France, Germany, Lithuania, the United States, Israel.

 

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; Party for the thirty years of Radio Tre Suite (2021); 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

She has composed music for classical, Italian and foreign musicians, which have been performed in important international contexts, such as: Festival Della Nazioni, Cité De La Musique in Strasbourg, Universidad De Las Artes (Havana, Cuba), Westerbeck Recital Hall Pasadena (California), New Performing Arts Hall at PCC (California), Boston Court Pasadena (California), Pharos Arts Foundation (Cyprus), just to name a few.

Some of her compositions have been selected to be recorded by important artists on the international scene, jazz and classical:

“December Waltz”, and “When All Was Chet” were recorded by the Italian and American trio of Enrico Pieranunzi; “Deseo”, recorded by pianist John Taylor with singer Diana Torto; and again by guitarist Arturo Tallini, with singer Ada Montellanico.

“Assoviando” for Solo Clarinet, included in the Compilation “Musicians for the Italian Clarinet Academy”; “Giro Bachiano” for Solo Clarinet, recorded for Vatican Radio (Maestro Maurizio D’Alessandro) and performed at Rsi (Swiss Radio and Television) by Maestro Corrado Giuffredi, Principal Clarinet of the Orchestra of Italian Switzerland. In addition, three of her songs were broadcast on RAI5 and Sky Classica, for the presentation of the DVD “Corrado Giuffredi Duets”, recorded in duo with Corrado Giuffredi.

A piece of her “C19”, dedicated to Maestro Alessandro Carbonare, Principal Clarinet of the Santa Cecilia Academy – has been included in the repertoire of the famous trio Alessandro Carbonare Clarinet Trio.

Her piece “New Life” has been published in the Italian Real Book, which includes the compositions of the most important Italian jazz players.

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.

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 Film at the 10th edition of the Lady Film Makers Festival in Los Angeles, 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 and at New York City Independent Film Festival 2019.

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.

RAI 5 and SKY CLASSICA: periodic broadcast of the “Corrado Giuffredi Duets” project, in which she performs, together with the clarinetist, three pieces of her own composition.

RAINEWS, guest at “Studio 24” to present his trio concert, with Stefano Di Battista Special Guest.

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

Lithuanian National Radio and Television.

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

Graduation in Classical Piano (Conservatory of Music of S. Cecilia, Rome); Graduation in Arrangement and Composition for Jazz Orchestra (Conservatory of Music of L. Refice, Frosinone); Siena Jazz specialization courses, with: Enrico Rava, Stefano Battaglia, Bruno Tommaso. Master Class with Enrico Pieranunzi, Franco D’andrea, Marc Johnson.

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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Andy Hamilton – The Wire, UK

“A highly inventive composer and pianist.”

Andy Hamilton - The Wire, UK

Paola Parri – Piano Solo

“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

Vincenzo Martorella – Jazzit

“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

Massimo Tarabelli – Ancona Jazz

“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

Gerlando Gatto – A proposito di Jazz

“…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

Andrea Scaccia – Left

“… 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

Fabio Ciminiera – Jazz Convention

“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

Jazz Podium, Germania

“… 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

Claudio Sessa – Corriere della Sera

“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

Jerome Wilson – Cadence Magazine, USA

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

Jerome Wilson - Cadence Magazine, USA

M. F. – JAC, Spagna

“… 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

Alceste Ayroldi – Jazzitalia

“…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