Jazz concert with Mirko Guerrini, sax, and Andrea Keller, piano

27/09/2019 at 15:00 in Sala Monteverdi

Mirko Guerrini

Born in Florence in 1973, Mirko Guerrini has studied piano, saxophone, classical composition and jazz music at the Conservatorio “Cherubini” in Florence.

Eclectic and multi-instrumentalist, composer and orchestra conductor, he has 6 Cds to his credit as a solo sax player and leader of jazz ensembles, more than 40 CDs as a sideman and besides being the resident soloist in Stefano Bollani’s quintet “I Visionari” he is also the leader of the “Cirko Guerrini” quintet and of the “Triodegradabile”band.

Guerrini has released 5 books: 2 with a selection of his compositions by the well known label Carisch Ed, and 3 educational books dedicated to the Jazz Tenor Saxophone: Stan Getz, Joe Henderson and Oliver Nelson.

He was part of the “blockbuster” project “Carioca” with Stefano Bollani and all brazilian musicians (cd and dvd released with more than 80.000 copies sold), and has toured 3 times in Italy with more than 50 concerts. In two of them the great Caetano Veloso has joined the band.

Guerrini hosts the radio show “Dottor Djembè” together with David Riondino and Stefano Bollani. The radio program is now at its sixth-season run and in June 2010 it also became a tv show for Rai3, composing and arranging all the music for it.

He has very high quality and varied collaborations: with Billy Cobham, Brian Auger, Mark Feldman, Stefano Bollani, Enrico Rava, Stefano Battaglia, Paul McCandless, Caetano Veloso, Hermeto Pascoal as far as jazz is concerned, with notable singers-songwriters such as Ivano Fossati and Giorgio Gaber and with a number of other outstanding artists in Italy and abroad.

He is also in great demand as a composer/conductor with different Symphony Orchestras (Orchestra “A.Toscanini” of Parma, Orchestra Regionale Toscana, Orchestra della Campania and others), being the winner of International Music Competitions such as the “Concorso 2 Agosto di Bologna” (2000, 2005).

He has performed all over the world: in Brasil, Japan, Australia, Canada, Usa, France, Spain, Russia, Finland, Indonesia and in many other countries.

As an educator, Guerrini has taught at the “Giuseppe Verdi” music school of Prato for 7 years, and now he’s a professor of Jazz Saxophone at the Conservatorio “Mascagni” in Livorno.

Has been invited as visiting professor at Monash University of Melbourne (2005, 2009, 2011 and 2012) and at UTAS in Hobart in Australia as well as at the Banff Centre for Performing Arts in Canada (2010, 2012), and has been the Keynote speaker at a Conference on “Musical Perspectives” at the Warwick University, in Warwick, UK in 2012. In 2013 he has been nominated as “adjunct fellow” at Monash University of Melbourne.

 

Andrea Keller

Born of Czech parents in 1973, Andrea Keller grew up in Sydney, Australia.

Convinced from a young age that she would be a musician, she studied piano, flute and saxophone at the Sydney Conservatorium High School. Inspired by her older brother, she penned her first compositions at the age of 10, and received her A-mus-a with distinction on piano at age 14. It was around this time that she was introduced to jazz music and the art of improvisation. Continuing to explore classical, jazz and original musics throughout her teenage years, her musical path became more defined when she moved to Melbourne in 1993 to attend the Victorian College of the Arts.

During Keller's professional career, she has led many projects as a pianist, whose focus has been to perform her original compositions and arrangements, most notably Still Night: Music in Poetry, Five Below, Transients, Masters & Apprentices, The Andrea Keller Quartet, The Bartok Project, The Wayne Shorter Project, The Komeda Project, From Ether, and Three Lanes. She was a co-founding member of the original Bennetts Lane Big Band (2001-2013), and is a Yamaha artist, and a represented artist of the Australian Music Centre.

Since 1996 Keller has been an active educator in Melbourne’s tertiary jazz & improvisation departments, including the Faculty of the VCA and MCM University of Melbourne, Monash University and Melbourne Polytechnic (formerly NMIT). She has been invited to give workshops at the Australian National Academy of Music, Queensland Conservatorium, Monash University, Perth Jazz Society, Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts, Queensland University of Technology, NMIT, VCA, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and was integral in the annual jazz/improvisation workshops for school aged girls, ‘Girls Do Jazz’, presented by the Melbourne International Women’s Jazz Festival (2000-2007).
Keller is currently Lecturer in Music (Jazz & Improvisation - Piano) at the VCA/MCM.

The diversity of Keller’s approach to music has seen her perform in settings ranging from big band to solo, and has placed her on stage with artists such as Eddie Perfect, Genevieve Lacey, John Surman (UK), Nicole Lizee (CA), Ronan Guilfoyle (IE), the Black Arm Band, Bernie McGann, the Australian Art Orchestra, Sandy Evans, Flinders Quartet, Allan Browne, Ten Part Invention, Phil Slater, The Song Company, Mike Nock, Gian Slater, Barney McAll, James Crabb, and more.

With a growing body of work traversing styles, Keller has been invited to compose and arrange music for Ensemble Offspring (2017), The Sydney Women's Jazz Collective (2016), The Letter String Quartet (2016), The Song Company (2015), Marshall McGuire (harp)(2015), Zephyr (string) Quartet (2015 & 2014), Black Arm Band (2012-current), Genevieve Lacey & James Crabb Duo (2014), ‘Poetica’ ABC Radio National (2013), Genevieve Lacey (recorder)(2013), Four Winds Festival (2010), ANU Canberra (2010), Claire Edwardes (percussionist)(2010), Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival (2010, 2003, 2000), Seraphim Trio (2009), Ten Part Invention (2009), Royal Children’s Hospital (2008), Mike Nock (2002), Australian Art Orchestra (2002).

Lauded for her music, Keller has received three ARIA Awards, six Australian Jazz ‘Bell’ Awards, two Art Music Awards, an APRA Professional Development Award, the Merlyn Myer Composing Women's Commission, and fellowships from the MCA/Freedman Foundation and the Australia Council. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Improvisation (Honours) from the Victorian College of the Arts (2001) and a Master of Arts (Research) from Queensland University of Technology (2011).

 

Organization: CremonaFiere