I Poeti del Piano Solo: program of the 5th edition
I Poeti del Piano Solo, the festival dedicated to the pure piano emotions organized by Musicus Concentus in collaboration with the Something Like This Association, comes back to Florence for the fifth consecutive year.
Under the artistic direction of pianist Stefano Maurizi and Fernando Fanutti, president of Musicus Concentus, this year the festival is moved earlier in the spring, lengthening to four days. The tradition of holding the concerts in different locations is confirmed: in addition to the Sala Vanni and the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, for the 5th edition the Terrazza Belvedere del Giardino Bardini, a hidden gem that offers a unique perspective on Florence, will be added.
9/05 – Omer Klein – Museo dell’Opera del Duomo di Firenze – h. 21:15
🇮🇹 Only Italian Date
Free entry with mandatory reservations from May, 2024
Omer Klein is a jazz pianist and composer born in Israel in 1982. From an early age he demonstrated an exceptional talent for music, receiving classical training and developing an interest in jazz during his adolescence. He studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston, honing his technique and understanding of musical language, and then moved to New York, where he studied with Fred Hersch and established his reputation on the international jazz scene.
His music is a unique fusion of jazz, ethnic influences and Jewish musical traditions: a mix that reflects his diverse background and wide range of musical interests. His piano technique is virtuosic, but it is his ability to communicate deep emotions and his creativity in improvisation that distinguish him as a musician.
In his long career Kelin has released 10 albums, some of them as a trio with bassist Haggai Cohen-Milo and drummer Amir Bresler. His music has been acclaimed by critics for its originality and innovative spirit, so much so that in 2023 he received two nominations for the prestigious Deutscher Jazzpreis, in the categories of “Piano/keyboard” and “Live Act of the Year”.
10/05 – Grégory Privat – Sala Vanni – h. 21:15
🇮🇹 Only Italian Date
– Tickets on sale at Boxol.it BUY NOW –
Born in Martinique in December 1984, Grégory Privat is the son of pianist José Privat, known for his participation in the internationally recognized Caribbean group, Malavoi. Attracted by the piano at a very young age, he took private lessons from the age of six and devoted himself for 10 years to a classical apprenticeship before turning to improvisation techniques and jazz.
Following his participation in the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Martial Solal Competition, he released his first album Ki Koté in 2011. It is with the 2013 album Tales of Cyparis, inspired by the story of Louis-Auguste Cyparis, the only prisoner who survived the Mountain Pelée eruption in 1902 and was hired by the Barnum Circus, that Grégory Privat begins to be considered one of the most prominent musicians on the new jazz scene. A status confirmed by the release in January 2015 of his third album Luminescence duet with Sonny Troupé, faithful partner and great master of Gwoka music. The album is named at the 2015 Victoires du Jazz in the category « revelation of the year, Frank-Ténot prize”.
During the same year, Grégory is the new piano player in the Liberetto quartet of Swedish bass player Lars Danielsson, who encourages him to sign with the label ACT: the album Family Tree of his first trio (Tilo Bertholo, drums and Linley Marthe, bass) is released on the prestigious label in October 2016. Three years later, in search of freedom and artistic independence, Grégory creates his own label Buddham Jazz, produces and records the album Soley in 2020 with Chris Jennings on bass and Tilo Bertholo on drums. In 2022, Gregory Privat released the album Yonn, which means “One” in Creole: it is the first time the Martinican pianist has made a solo piano album. On February, 2024, the new trio album Phoenix is released on the Buddham Jazz label, and in March he won the prestigious Prix Django Reinhardt from the Académie du Jazz as French musician of the year.
11/05 – Fred Hersch – Sala Vanni – h. 21:15
🇮🇹 National premiere
– Tickets on sale at Boxol.it BUY NOW –
A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is a pervasively influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over more than three decades as an improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator and recording artist. He has been proclaimed “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” by Vanity Fair, “an elegant force of musical invention” by The L.A. Times, and “a living legend” by The New Yorker.
A fifteen-time Grammy nominee, Hersch has regularly garnered jazz’s most prestigious awards, including recent distinctions as a 2016 Doris Duke Artist, 2016 and 2018 Jazz Pianist of the Year from the Jazz Journalists Association, and the 2017 Prix Honorem de Jazz from L’Acádemie Charles Cros for the totality of his career.
As versatile and exploratory as his trio and duo excursions can be, such as the one with Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava, nowhere is the boundless range and emotional diversity of Hersch’s artistry as evident as in his breathtaking solo performances. JazzTimes has hailed his unaccompanied playing as “a complete, self-sufficient, uniquely pure art form”, while All About Jazzhas remarked that “when it comes to the art of solo piano in jazz, there are two classes of performers: Fred Hersch and everybody else.”
Fred Hersch will present Silent, Listening, his new piano solo album released by ECM, in its national premiere in Florence for the V edition of I Poets of Piano Solo.
12/05 – Stefania Tallini – Terrazza Belvedere del Giardino Bardini* – h.18:00
– Tickets on sale at Boxol.it BUY NOW –
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 12 records as a leader and has collaborated with great names on the world scene (like Jaques Morelenbaum, Gregory Hutchinson, John Taylor and Enrico Pieranunzi) and has performed several times as part of the Concerts of the Quirinale as well as at major international festivals in Italy, France, Germany, Lithuania, the United States and Israel.
In her solo piano performances, she best expresses her peculiar compositional world, now increasingly mature and personal. A kaleidoscope of diverse sonorities that, combined with impeccable technical mastery and deep emotional interpretation, have made her “a highly inventive composer and pianist” as the UK magazine The Wire has described her.
The concert will be performed at sunset in the beautiful location of the Terrazza Belvedere del Giardino Bardini, a hidden gem that offers a unique perspective on Florence.
*In case of bad weather, the concert will be hosted in Sala Vanni.
