Battaglia is a rare artist who plays with fearless freedom and meaningful precision. A strong case can be made that the best European Jazz is coming out of Italy. The five albums that Stefano Battaglia has made for ECM contain the strongest work released by an ECM pianist during the last ten years. (Thomas Conrad – Jazz Times)
Born in Milan, he began to study piano when he was seven years old. His classical career includes several Italian and European festivals, hundreds of concerts as a soloist. He recorded more than 100 cd (mostly as a leader and for solo piano), received many awards for his solo piano and trio recordings. Besides the solo performance, he focused his research on the trio format (piano bass and drums) and on the duo piano-percussion format (with Tony Oxley, Pierre Favre, Bill Elgart and Michele Rabbia).
This Masterclass is co-organised by our professors David Linx and Bart De Nolf.