Giovanni Sollima (born 24 October 1962 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy) is an Italian composer and cellist. He was born into a family of musicians and studied cello with Giovanni Perriera and composition with his father, Eliodoro Sollima, at the Conservatorio di Palermo, where he graduated with highest honors. He later studied with Antonio Janigro and Milko Kelemen at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart and at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg.
As a composer, Sollima's influences are wide ranging, taking in jazz and rock, as well as various ethnic traditions from the Mediterranean area. Sollima's music is influenced by minimalism, with his compositions often featuring modal melodies and repetitive structures. Because his works are characterized by a more diverse and eclectic approach to material than the early American minimalist composers, the American critic Kyle Gann has called Sollima a postminimalist composer.
Sollima teaches at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and plays a cello by Francesco Ruggieri (made in Cremona in 1679). He has collaborated with the American poet and musician Patti Smith, appearing on her records and performing with her in concert. He also collaborates with the Silk Road Project.
Opera and ballet
Notti di Grazia (1991) - Melodramma in un atto, libretto by Dario Oliveri
Mittersill 101 variazioni sul caso Anton Webern (1996) - Video opera, text by Dario Oliveri, after Goethe
Cenerentola Azzurro (1994) - Text by Dario Oliveri
Casanova (2000) - Choreography by Karole Armitage
Matteo Ricci — Li Madou (2001) - Melologue, text by Filippo Mignini
J. Beuys song (2001) - Choreography by Carolyn Carlson
Ellis Island (2002) - Opera in 2 acts, libretto by Roberto Alajmo
Incidental music for the theatre
Match (1990)
Cordelia & co. (1991)
3 pezzi for " Il sogno spezzato di Rita Atria" (1993)
3 pezzi for "Pippo Fava" (1994)
I Pavoni (1997)
Installations
Imagining Prometheus (2003)
Luminaria (2003)
Discography (as composer)
Aquilarco - Polygram Records - (1998)
Spasimo - Agora - (2000)
John Africa in "La formula del fiore" - Sensible Records: SSB 012, (1999)
Viaggio in Italia - Agorà (AG 259) (2000)
Violoncelles, vibrez! - Agorà: AG 155. (1998)
Violoncelles, vibrez! (on Tracing Astor: Gidon Kremer Plays Astor Piazzolla) - Nonesuch: 79601 (2001)
Canti rocciosi - I suoni delle Dolomiti (2001)
Works - Sony Music: DED 519769 2 (2005)
Heimat Terra, Fiddle Files (on The Magic of Wood: From Lutherie to Music) - Dynamic: 5092 (2005)
We were trees - Sony/BGM 88697314382 (2008)
Astrolabioanima - Odd Times Record: OTR 001 (2008)
Sonnets et Rondeaux - Cobra Records: CBRA 35 (2012)