Ilaria Crociani

Currently touring in Australia with the support of Creative Australia to present her latest work for the ABC JAZZ, Ilaria Crociani is an award winning lyricist and composer who migrated to Australia in 2013. In her first appearance at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues, Ilaria will perform pieces from her latest recording “Connecting The Dots”, a concept album of original vocal jazz songs inspired by significant women of Australian history and beyond.

“Connecting The Dots” is not just a simple collection of songs. It is also an inspirational anthology of nine stories, all with a unique female character at their centre. The album weaves together narratives of hardship, vulnerability, resoluteness and redemption to paint an uplifting picture of resilience and hope. With all lyrics by Ilaria Crociani, this intensely coloured repertoire derives from the juxtaposition of Ilaria’s compositional style to the pens of her longtime collaborators Mirko Guerrini and Niko Schäuble and the inimitable and sophisticated voice of Paul Grabowsky – all of whom will be with her on stage.

Ilaria has worked with artists such as Tony Gould A.M, John Griffith A.O, Geoff Hughes, Ben Robertson and managed jazz quintet Radiosuccessi. Since 2018, she has been the soloist singer of Exstasy Morricone, a septet showcasing a monographic collection of psychedelic compositions authored in the ‘70s by Ennio Morricone. A semi-finalist with her original compositions in the 2020 and 2023 International Songwriting Competition (USA), Ilaria is a recipient of the “2021 ABC Classic and Jazz Composer Commissioning Fund and a 2021 Arts Grant from the City of Melbourne. In 2022 on commission by the ABC Kids Listen she has produce “Evergreen” a small collection of children’s songs with bilingual lyrics in Italian and English.

Lineup:
Ilaria Crociani - voice
Paul Grabowsky - piano
Mirko Guerrini - sax, duduk, ethnic flutes, harmonium
Niko Schäuble - drums