Giovanni Sollima is an internationally renowned cellist and one of Italy’s most widely performed contemporary composers. He has collaborated with artists including Riccardo Muti, Yo-Yo Ma, Iván Fischer, Viktoria Mullova, Ruggero Raimondi, Mario Brunello, Kathryn Stott, Giuseppe Andaloro, Yuri Bashmet, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Giovanni Antonini, Ottavio Dantone, Patti Smith, Stefano Bollani, Paolo Fresu and Antonio Albanese.
He has performed with orchestras and ensembles including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Moscow Soloists, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Il Giardino Armonico, Accademia Bizantina, Holland Baroque and Budapest Festival Orchestra.
Sollima has written and performed music for film, theatre, television and dance, working with artists and directors including Peter Greenaway, John Turturro, Bob Wilson, Carlos Saura, Marco Tullio Giordana, Peter Stein, Anatolij Vasiliev, Karole Armitage and Carolyn Carlson. He has performed at major venues around the world, including Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Sydney Opera House and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, as well as at the Ravenna Festival.
Since 2010, Sollima has taught at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he was awarded the title of Accademico. In 2012, he co-founded 100 Cellos with Enrico Melozzi.
As a composer and performer, Sollima explores a wide range of genres, incorporating ancient, Eastern and electric instruments, as well as instruments of his own invention. His adventurous approach has seen him perform in the Sahara Desert, underwater and with a cello made of ice.
Sollima has also brought renewed attention to the 18th-century cellist and composer Giovanni Battista Costanzi, recording his sonatas and symphonies for cello and basso continuo for the Spanish label Glossa. In October 2018, Sollima received the prestigious Anner Bijlsma Award at the Cello Biennale Amsterdam. In 2021, the documentary N-Ice Cello was released, tracing the evocative journey of the ice cello created by Tim Linhart.
