Ivano Leva

Ivano Leva was born in Naples, Italy, in 1975. He studied piano with Alexandra Brucher at the Conservatory of Campobasso and composition with Gaetano Panariello at the Conservatory of Naples. Interested in improvisation and jazz from an early age, he also studied jazz piano with Francesco D’Errico, Francesco Nastro and Enrico Pieranunzi.

An award-winning composer, he has received commissions from prominent institutions, and his works have been premiered in Australia at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre and Melbourne Recital Centre, in France at the Auditorium Maurice Ravel and Académie Diplomatique in Paris, and in Italy at the Goethe-Institut and Auditorium Scarlatti in Naples. As a pianist and improviser, he has appeared at festivals and concert series including Katerinburg Jazz, Festival dei Due Mondi, Camerata Musicale Barese, Festival Oboe Paris, Nick La Rocca Festival, Pietà de’ Turchini and Piano City Napoli. He has also performed on television and radio programmes for the Italian national broadcaster RAI.

His longstanding exploration of the relationship between classical music and real-time composition has helped shape a distinctive personal style. His album of original compositions L’ala del silenzio explores the balance between the formal architecture of the piano quintet and elements of free improvisation. He also works as a music tutor and lecturer; his teaching has included classical and jazz piano, harmony and theory in the pre-academic courses of the Conservatory of Salerno.