Giovanni Sollima

Giovanni Sollima (Palermo, 1962) studied cello with Giovanni Perriera and Antonio Janigro, and composition with his father and Milko Kelemen. He is a true cello virtuoso and a remarkable composer. He communicates through music that is full of Mediterranean rhythms and typically Italian melodies, and he covers all style periods; from the ‘Jura of the Cello’ – as he calls the Baroque period – to metal. Furthermore, he is a qualified researcher of the old Italian school of the cello. At the Biënnale in 2018, he presented a programme of music by Giovanni Battista Costanzi and in 2022, he performed the rediscovered Cello Concerto by Gaetano Ciandelli with the Orchestra of the 18th Century.  Giovanni Sollima mainly performs his own compositions and thus contributes heavily to the creation of new cello repertoire. His audience is extremely diverse and ranges from classical music connoisseurs to young metalheads. Giovanni Sollima plays a Francesco Ruggieri cello from 1679. At the Biënnale in 2018, Giovanni Sollima received the Anner Bijlsma Award.