About me

Michele Corcella is a multi-award-winning composer, arranger, and conductor.

He graduated in Musical Studies (DAMS) at the University of Bologna, defending a thesis on Duke Ellington’s soundtracks. In addition, while at the Bologna Conservatory, he graduated in Jazz Music, as well as Arrangement and Composition for Multimedia Music. Michele also studied orchestral conducting at the Imola International Academy “Incontri col Maestro”.

At the international level, Corcella has won numerous composition awards such as Eddie Lang (2009), 2 Agosto (2009), Jazzverk (2010), Bargajazz (2012), Scrivere in Jazz (2014), Siae Libera il Jazz (2015), European Jazz Composers Competition (2018).

Michele has worked as composer, arranger or conductor with Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, David Liebman, Anders Jormin, Jules Buckley, Maria Pia De Vito, Diana Torto, Daniele Scannapieco, Alfonso Deidda, Rosario Giuliani, Gianluigi Trovesi, Gianluca Petrella, and Orchestra Jazz della Sardegna. In the classical field, he has worked with Mario Brunello, Altenberg Trio Wien and Orchestra Sinfonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna.

In 2011, along with Micheal Abene, he co-arranged the production “Antiche Danze e Canti Italiani” for the WDR Big Band and the WDR Funkhausorchester, which was also the beginning of an artistic partnership with pianist Glauco Venier, who was the composer and soloist. The same project, re-orchestrated and renamed Symphonika, was published as a CD/DVD on the Artesuono label, featuring vocalist Norma Winstone. Corcella is the conductor and arranger of L’Insiùm, a twelve-piece ensemble created by Glauco Venier. Their recording Mainerio, features Norma Winstone on vocals.

Since 2015 he has been the conductor of the Martini Big Band, (the Jazz Orchestra of the Bologna Conservatory),which specialises in reviving historical masterpieces of orchestral jazz such as Porgy & Bess, (the famous Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ version), the New Orleans Suite, (with a score reconstructed from Duke Ellington’s original manuscripts) and, recently, a tribute to the Charlie Haden and Carla Bley’s Liberation Music Orchestra.

Currently Michele is working with world-famous pianist and composer Enrico Pieranunzi in a tribute to John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet arranged for jazz trio and symphony orchestra, which has been programmed in some of the most famous Italian jazz festivals.

Michele Corcella specialises in Duke Ellington’s composition techniques and has given lectures at the last three editions of the Duke Ellington International Conferences in Amsterdam (2014), New York (2016), Birmingham (2018) and at the International Jazz Composers’ Symposium in Tampa (2017).
He also held a workshop on Gil Evans’ orchestration techniques at the International Jazz Composers’ Symposium 2019 in Greeley, Colorado, USA.

He is a tenured teacher of jazz composition at the Conservatorio Antonio Buzzolla di Adria.