Solo Piano Series: Francesco Turrisi

Francesco Turrisi has been defined a “musical alchemist” and a “musical polyglot” by the press.

He left his native Italy in 1997 to study jazz piano and early music at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where he obtained a Bachelor and a Master’s degree. Since 2004 he has been collaborating with celebrated early music ensemble L’Arpeggiata. With l’Arpeggiata he performs at major early music festivals in Europe and around the world - including two concerts at Carnegie Hall in April 2015 - and has recorded for Warner, Virgin, Naive and Alpha. He regularly collaborates with Italian traditional singer Lucilla Galeazzi and with Irish ensembles Yurodny (balkan music/contemporary jazz), The Gregory Walkers (early music), Resound (contemporary music), eX ensemble (early music).

Francesco is also the leader and founder of “The Taquín Experiments” an ensemble that pushes the boundaries of contemporary jazz, world music and early music.
He has released four critically acclaimed albums as a leader and two as co-leader (Tarab and Zahr) on Diatribe records and on his own label Taquin records.
His latest album “Grigio” features Sean Nos singer Roisin El Safty, early music singer Clara Sanabras and percussion virtuoso Zohar Fresco. The album was described as “Lyrical, sensitively assembled and beautifully sung” by John Fordham in a review for The Guardian.