Giorgio Occhipinti
Histoire

Giorgio Occhipinti (p)
Sonia Slany (v)
Joanna Lewis (v)
Nico Ciricugno (v)
Tiziana Cavaleri (cello)
Giuseppe Guarrella (b)
Matteo Gallini (b-cl, s-cl)
Olivia Bignardi (b-cl, s-cl)
Antonio Moncada (dr)

Composer/pianist Giorgio Occhipinti, who was born in Ragusa, Italy in 1969, considers the basis of his working technique, which he has dubbed “organized chaos”, to be a controlled collision of a variety of different sources of inspiration. His main source of inspiration is 20th century music, albeit refracted by the prismatic effect of his Italian – or, more precisely, Sicilian – origins. This special Mediterranean outlook on life informs his novel interpretation and evaluation of the music of the last century. Folk music, contemporary classics, jazz and rock, opera, marching music – such diverse musical genres are usually deemed incompatible. From Occhipinti’s highly personal perspective, however, such diametrically opposed facets can very well be combined in a kind of controlled chaos. In Occhipinti’s composing process, tradition does by no means merely serve as a host of patterns released for reproduction or deconstruction. Occhipinti draws from its overall effects and considers it to be the foundation of his aesthetic design, which is unique in the European jazz and new music scene.