Mike del Ferro

Jazz goes to the Opera Luca Ciarla Trio feat. Mike Del Ferro LUCA CIARLA violin MIKE DEL FERRO piano MAURIZIO PERRONE double bass Jazz goes to the Opera Violinist Luca Ciarla meets extraordinary pianist and composer Mike del Ferro for Jazz goes to the Opera, a dazzling performance of arrangements from the operatic tradition and original compositions. Del Ferro, a sophisticated opera connoisseur, is the son of tenor Leonard del Ferro, who performed and recorded with the divine Maria Callas. Jazz goes to the Opera is a stylish game where Luca and Mike, joined by the steady and creative bass playing of Maurizio Perrone, invent surprising harmonic evolutions on some of the best melodies ever written. “…one of the most interesting violinists nowadays on the international scene, capable of browsing around different sounds and genres without ever losing his unmistakable style.” la Repubblica (Italy) Luca Ciarla (www.lucaciarla.com) A creative and surprising violinist, Luca Ciarla easily transcends the boundaries among genres to trace an innovative musical path, a magical acoustic seduction in perfect balance between written compositions and improvisation, traditional and contemporary sounds. He has successfully performed in jazz, classical and world music festivals and concert series in 70 countries in the world; from Montreal Jazz Festival to the Hong Kong Performing Arts Centre, from Celtic Connections in Scotland to the Villa-Lobos Festival in Rio de Janeiro, from Melbourne Jazz Festival to the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Italy. A native of Termoli, Italy, Luca began playing violin and piano at the age of eight. By twelve he was studying at the conservatory and few years later began exploring jazz and improvisation. He received his violin degree in 1993 and then studied at the Fiesole School of Music and the Scuola di Alto perfezionamento of Saluzzo. In 1996 Luca moved to the United States to pursue a master’s at the Indiana University and to study jazz with David Baker. Subsequently he also completed a doctorate in musical arts at the University of Arizona where he taught violin for few years. Winner of several competitions in Italy and abroad, in 1999 he was awarded by the prestigious New York-based Chamber Music America. Over the years Luca Ciarla has worked with artists such as Greg Cohen, Chris Jarrett, Daniele Sepe, Joshua Bell, Edgar Mayer, Daniele Scannapieco, Danilo Rea, Sylvain Gagnon, Anthony Fernandes, Luciano Berio, Andrea Piccioni, Meklit Hadero, Simone Zanchini, Marina Rei, Blaine Whittaker, Mimmo Locasciulli, Luciano Biondini, Fabrizio Bosso, Sergio Cammariere, Rodolfo Maltese, Paola Turci, Luigi Tessarollo, Ferruccio Spinetti, Mark Rush, Peppe Voltarelli, Javier Girotto, Antonio Forcione. After recording with several prestigious labels, Luca Ciarla founds Violipiano, a production company that takes care of his artistic activity at 360 degrees. He regularly collaborates with visual artist Keziat with whom he has envisioned the performance Music for your Eyes, presented also in Johannesburg under the invitation of South African artist William Kentridge. Numerous national and international media have talked about him, including la Repubblica, New York Times, Rai 1, Il Fatto Quotidiano, The Sydney Morning Herald, RadioRai 2, TGcom Mediaset, Il Giornale della Musica, RTHK Hong Kong, Neue Musikzeitung and many others. At the invitation of the Fiesole School of Music, Luca has recently performed in Florence for the Strings City Festival, in the same spaces dedicated to the retrospective on Marina Abramović at Palazzo Strozzi. Mike del Ferro (www.mikedelferro.com) International Award winning pianist and composer Mike del Ferro was born in Amsterdam. His father was Leonard del Ferro, an opera singer who sang and recorded with Maria Callas and Leonard Bernstein. He started studying classical piano at the age of nine and after falling in love with jazz he pursued his studies to received a Master in Contemporary Music at the Amsterdam Conservatory. In 1989 he won First Prize at the Rotterdam Jazz Piano Competition, the Soloist Prize at the Europe Jazz Contest in Brussels and First Prize at the Karlovy Vary Jazz contest, studying composition and arrangements with Bob Brookmeyer at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, Germany. In 1995 Mike was appointed on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory in Gent, Belgium where he taught jazz piano until 1997. His reputation as a soloist, accompanist, composer and arranger has led to performances and recordings with musicians such as Toots Thielemans, Branford Marsalis, Jack DeJohnette, Randy Brecker, Oscar Castro Neves, Deborah Brown, Erik Truffaz, Jorge Rossy, Scott Hamilton, Richard Galliano, and many others. He has released more then 20 albums under his own name and he has appeared as a sideman on many albums in different genres from Dixieland to Salsa. Mike has travelled the world extensively (so far 117 countries), searching for collaborations with musicians from cultures quite different to his own, and the musical results have been eye-opening, building musical bridges between cultures not normally within reach of each other. He has managed to combine elements of the revered canons of Western music interspersed with the audacity of Jazz improvisation, and paying tribute to the ancient structures of Asian, South American and African traditional music. Mike has signed with Challenge Records for a series of 10 CDs named “songs inspired by wandering the globe”, taken from collaborations with musicians all over the world. The first trio CD “the Journey” was released in the spring of 2012, and the second album, “Impressions of Brazil” was released in August 2013, featuring Vocalist / Guitarist Ceumar from Brazil. The 3rd Album in this Series, “the Johannesburg Sessions” was released in april 2015, and in 2016 Mike recorded the 4th Album: “Italian Opera meets Jazz” with the Grammy Award winning Metropole Orchestra and Soprano Claron McFadden. In 2019 the 5th Album “From one language to another’ was released, featuring the phenomenal Belgian/French vocalist David Linx.All the albums in this series were nominated for the Edison, the Dutch Grammy award. Mike currently also teaches at the Royal Conservatory in Groningen. Maurizio Perrone (www.maurizioperrone.com) He began playing electric bass at the age of 19 under the guidance of Flavio Ferrari and subsequently improved his knowledge of jazz language by studying with Maestro Marco Siniscalco (Aires Tango, Rai Orchestra). At the age of 22 he switched to double bass followed by M° Andrea Pighi (The Bassgang, Accademia S. Cecilia) with whom he studied for about 3 years. He carries out his musical activity mainly in jazz and world music. For over ten years, he has been a member of the Milagro Acustico ensemble and Luca Ciarla's quartet, with whom he has performed at various festivals in Italy and abroad (Sibiu Jazz Fest2018 - Romania; Sudbury Jazz Fest 2018- Canada).