Enzo Fornione

Enzo Fornione began studying music at the age of nine. He graduated from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin and studied jazz and composition with Palmino Pia. During his studies, he presented advanced work ahead of the normal schedule and received a scholarship in his third year.

After a classical education, his artistic curiosity led him to explore different musical genres, developing a personal style that embraces pop, jazz and contemporary music. In jazz, he led New Swing Quartet.it as pianist and singer, recording a double live CD and winning first prize at the Voghera Festival. He appeared on the RAI 1 television programme Periferie and performed in Italy and France.

His concerts in Italy have included the Puccini Festival in Viareggio, the Christmas Festival in Aosta, the Altomonte Festival in Cosenza, conservatories, jazz clubs and theatres, as well as Torino Jazz and Milan’s Blue Note. With guitarist Luca Allievi, he recorded Milo, a collection of original compositions by the two musicians with a Latin jazz character.

He collaborated with actors Corrado Vallerotti and Mario Bois on a musical theatre show inspired by The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean. For the Primoatto theatre company, he composed music for Andy & Norman and Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter (Il calapranzi), directed by Mario Bois and performed by Alessandro Cosentini and Paolo Tibaldi.

Fornione worked as arranger and pianist on Giacomo Manfredi’s recordings The Dancer and Song of Light and Darkness, and as pianist on Chiara Rosso’s H2O, distributed in Italy by Egea. He composed music for the documentary Assolo and Matteo Cadorin’s audiobook Nel tempo di un caffè, whose performers included Michele Placido.

He contributed songs to Kachupa’s Giù la maschera and wrote Ladro di parole, a collection of spiritual poems that received the Jury Prize in the European “Penna d’Autore” literary competition. Alongside his performing and composing activities, he has taught at Fondazione Fossano Musica. His Da Vinci Jazz album The Orange Side brings together improvisation, jazz and pop through the expressive associations of the colour orange.