Ijò
Esmeralda Sella
Contacts
Send me an email if you would like to organise a concert, a presentation, a masterclass, or if you would like to discuss something or ask me a question.
Quello che colpisce di Magma è il suono, univoco e diversificato, compatto e sfuggente, lirico e antipoetico, melodico e straniante, come i minerali che concorrono a diventare magma. Indubbiamente poi è il fuoco, quello creativo, di Esmeralda Sella, che contribuisce a fondere gli elementi e ridurli ad un unico e originale corpo sonoro -
Jazz Convention, Flavio Caprera 14/10/2025
In Sella's playing, economy and dynamism went hand in hand. Her deft lyricism, edged with angularity, was delivered in a chain of short staccato phrases that stubbornly resisted greater flow. Repeating motifs swirled as drums and bass pursued a no less knotty course.
All about Jazz, Ian Patterson 10/10/2025
Esmeralda Sella sbaraglia le carte con un album di debutto che sorprende per precisione e candore - Battiti, Rai Radio 3
Eccellente e originalissima opera prima di un'artista già adesso apprezzabile e dalla quale è lecito attendersi grandi cose in futuro. Un piano solo è già stato registrato, ne attendiamo con interesse l'uscita. Album della settimana.
- Neri Pollastri, All About Jazz Italy
Artistic Biography
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Born in 1997, she started her journey in music at the age of six. Her path evolved independently through classical studies until she obtained her old system diploma at the age of eighteen in 2016.
During adolescence, she complained about the lack of improvisational and interpretative freedom in classical texts, which is why she decided to dedicate herself to the study of jazz in Bologna. During those years, she collaborated with Michele Corcella's Big Band, performing at Met Jazz in 2019 with a repertoire dedicated to the music of Charlie Haden and the Liberation Orchestra.
Supported by humanly and musically sublime teachers like Greg Burk and Fabrizio Puglisi during her bachelor's degree, she completed her master's degree at Siena Jazz, meeting and playing with musicians of the caliber of Yonathan Avishai, Ziv Ravitz, Gregory Hutchinson, Reinier Baas, Roberto Cecchetto, and many others. In the final years of her studies, thanks to the mentorship of maestro Stefano Battaglia and participation in the Chigiana seminars and annual piano workshops, she began to search for an identity that was closer to improvisation and certain compositional criteria belonging to contemporary music.
This culminated in her thesis and doctoral work on the cosmogony of sound and the study of traditional civilizations of Brazil, Africa, and the Middle East.
Exploring the theme of trance experienced as an altered state of body consciousness, understood as a universal tool. Further understanding the relationship between ritual, music and dance. Relating absorbed music (relatively speaking, because never in person) to its connection with contemporary life. And creating new sound material by experiencing the principles linked to the process described so far.
She played in the Inside Out Duo, where she was a finalist in 2023 for the Isio Saba prize, and Haunted Waves, participating in the Bucharest 2023 Jazz Festival competition. She participated as a sidewoman in Pierluigi Foschi's contemporary music project "Uroboro," Liliana Sommariva's "Nature Never Lies" project.
She plays in the Mediterranean folk music project Sinèa, with whom she reached the finals of the Woman European Jazz Competition.
She also collaborates with Franco Panizon, a pianist from Trieste with a classical-improvisational style, with whom she shares a piano duo project in Brussels.
Among the most recognized festivals, she participated in the Bologna Jazz Festival 2019 featuring the music of Mingus; Angelica Contemporary Music Festival 2019 with the G.B Martini Conservatory ensemble; Met Jazz 2020 with Michele Corcella's Big Band; Umbria Jazz Festival 2022 with This-Equilibrio; Agropoli Jazz Festival 2023 with Sinèa; Selinunte Jazz Festival 2023 with Roberto Provenzano and Esmeralda Sella Duo; Piano City 2023 in Naples; Iseo Jazz Festival in 2023 with Magma; Curva Minore festival 2024 with Magma; Fano Jazz Festival 2024 with Magma; A Jazz Supreme opening to Elias Stremeseder and Thomas Morgan in 2024 with Piano solo project; Aquila Jazz Festival in 2025; Puglia Sounds 2025 with Esmeralda Sella Magma.
She collaborated on two theatre productions by ERT Emilia Romagna Teatro as an accompanist in the performances of ‘Il peso del mondo nelle cose’ and ‘Padri e figli’, with which she toured several Italian theatres such as Il Mercadante in Naples, L'arena del sole in Bologna, Teatro Storchi in Modena and Teatro Verdi in Pordenone.
Currently, she resides in Siena and is primarily active with her trio album MAGMA with the label AUAND and on her future debut solo piano album titled Ijò.
Bandcamp
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Label Page
MAGMA
MAGMA is the result of a journey of human and musical growth and revelation. Our experiences in performance and composition have been summarised and expressed in our music. It's characterised by a demolition of formal roles and a search for the essential, which comes, as always, from sound.
The album was recorded on 29 July 2024 and released by Auand on 3 October 2025. It is currently available in physical format and on all online streaming platforms.
I would like to thank Federico Giolito and Giovanni Nardiello, two travelling companions to whom I'm immensely grateful.
IJO - SOLO PIANO
The discovery of rhythms, melodies, and sacred dances originating from Africa and carried by slaves to other remote and hidden parts of the world inspired the creation of Ijò: a long journey through the knowledge and embrace of a repertoire full of culture, tradition, and sacredness, expressed through the body, hands, voice, and the timbres of the piano.
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