Draft:Olivia Belli

Olivia Belli is an Italian composer and pianist. She was born in the city of Mantua, Italy, but her family moved to Trieste when she was 8, where she began to show an interest in piano. Trained as a concert pianist at the Trieste Conservatory, Belli started out playing works by the likes of Johann Sebastian Bach and Frédéric Chopin, but soon discovered the world of contemporary music and began to explore artists such as Philip Glass, Max Richter, and Ludovico Einaudi. In her own compositions, Belli incorporates elements of these artists and contemporary classical motifs alongside pop influences and more traditional elements of classical music.

To date, Belli has released twelve studio albums, including reinterpretations of works by Philip Glass, Max Richter, and Erik Satie, and five albums of her own compositions. She has also been commissioned to write for others, including for Mari Samuelsen's forthcoming new album for Deutsche Grammophon, and worked with Julia Kent and Library Tapes on the album The Quiet City. She was recently commissioned by the BBC Proms to write a new organ work, Limina Luminis, for the debut concert by organist Anna Lapwood, while her new album, Intermundia, is set for release early in 2024 , alongside a planned European tour and collaborations with The John Metcalfe Trio.

Her work has attracted critical and commercial acclaim. Her 2020 record River Path garnered over 30 million streams in just a few short weeks, and was praised by Textura as being: “many things — pretty, romantic, lyrical — but perhaps more than anything else intimate, especially when Belli reveals herself so unguardedly in the pieces and performs them with an equivalent degree of openness”. It was also the catalyst for Belli to sign an exclusivity deal with Sony Music, who have continued to release both her solo work and collaborations (her two most recent albums were released by XXIM Records, Sony Music’s new label for progressive, post-genre instrumental music). Her music is regularly broadcast by the likes of Classic FM, BBC Radio 3, and Times Radio, and Belli was the first female composer to be invited to curate Apple Music’s Piano Chill playlist. She was also chosen to appear on the cover of Spotify’s EQUAL Global Playlist, a playlist that celebrates female composers and performers who continue to transform the classical world, and was recently invited to join the Recording Academy Member Class.

Early life and education
Belli was born in Mantua, a historical city in the northern Italian region of Lombardy. As her father was a manager for BNP Paribas, the family spent her early years moving from one town to the next, but when she was 8, they settled in Trieste, a city located between the sea and the rural landscape of the Carso. It was here that she began to enjoy the feeling of freedom that the surroundings gave her and where she discovered the pleasure of living close to nature – elements that would later become a major inspiration for her own compositions.

Trieste was also where Belli began to play the piano; her parents’ upright Petrof. Belli also explored the violin, the harpsichord, the organ, and her parents’ large collection of vinyl, and was soon taking piano lessons. Aged 9, she was admitted to the Trieste Conservatory to begin an academic course studying repertoire, technique, composition, and history of music. Having taken masterclasses with the likes of Jörg Demus, Lazar Berman, Alexander Lonquich, Franco Scala, and Piero Rattalino, Belli graduated with full marks and honours, but did not follow the traditional career path of a concert pianist.

While completing her studies, she met Enrico Belli – the man who would later become her husband, and someone who shared a fascination with contemporary music. Together, they explored the works of John Cage, Luigi Nono, Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen and many more, and started a music festival, PERPIANOSOLO Meeting where they commissioned new piano works and created performances in collaboration with other artists such as dancers, painters, and actors. Admiring how the works of Philip Glass, Max Richter, and Ludovico Einaudi communicated with contemporary audiences, Belli resolved to turn composing from a private hobby into her main, professional focus. She subsequently released her first collection of songs, Where Night Never Comes, in 2018.

Music career
After graduating from the Trieste Conservatory, Belli spent several years interpreting and recording the work of other contemporary composers such as Philip Glass, Max Richter, and Ludovico Einaudi. Her first release, 2016’s My Piano Dolce Vita, was conceived as a journey through classic Italian soundtracks, while her next album, 2017’s Ludovico Einaudi: Stanze, was a re-recording on piano of Ludovico Einaudi's 1992 album, Stanze, a set of songs he composed for electric harp.

2017 also saw Belli release two albums of covers by two of the most significant influences on her work and compositional style – Max Richter: Piano Works and Philip Glass: Piano Works. The following year, Belli released two EPs reinterpreting the work of Erik Satie, and a further EP of Ludovico Einaudi compositions. This was followed by her first EP of original compositions, Other Lines, and her first, full-length album, Where Night Never Comes.

Recorded at her home studio in the open countryside of Fermo, in Marche, Where Night Never Comes was partially funded by a Kickstarter. Both Other Lines and Where Night Never Comes were self-released, with the latter being praised by Drifting, Almost Falling as having "an immediacy and a no filler approach which leaves the pieces sounding complete, but also concise." The album was also awarded Best Modern Album 2018 by SoloPiano.com. Six songs from Where Night Never Comes were remixed for an EP in 2019.

That year also saw Belli invited by Orange Mountain Music, Philip Glass' official label, to re-interpret his acclaimed record Metamorphosis; to achieve this, Belli used an Una Corda piano by Klavins. The resulting record, Metamorphosis I-V, was then followed by the release of her second, full-length album, River Path, in 2020. Released by Decca Records, the album garnered over 30 million streams on Spotify in just a few weeks and resulted in her signing an exclusivity deal with Sony Music. In 2020, she also released Mater, written and recorded with her husband Enrico Belli and a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, and Moonlight Recomposed, a reinterpretation of one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most famous sonatas – Sonata n. 14 op.27 n. 2, also known as the Moonlight Sonata – for the 250th anniversary of his birth.

2021 saw her first releases for XXIM Records, Sony Music’s new label for progressive, post-genre instrumental music. Sol Novo, her third album, was inspired by the dawn light around her home and the concept of new days – “My favorite light is the oblique one, in the morning and the evening. It brings the shadows and everything is more fascinating and mysterious.” The Winter Variations EP included six reworkings or variations on pieces themed around winter and Christmas, while Somnio Novo saw the songs of Sol Novo remixed by Slow Meadow, Ed Carlsen, Hugar, and other XXIM artists.

In 2022m Belli released the Sonus Noctis EP, a tribute to Frédéric Chopin - one of Belli's favourite composers – alongside two notable singles: "Threnody, After Mozart", an arrangement for piano from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488: II. Adagio for Deezer Originals, and "Nocturne III", an arrangement for piano from Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 15 No. 3 in G Minor.

Following the release in 2023 of the standalone single "Of Time", featuring two Johann Sebastian Bach variations, Belli composed a new organ work, Limina Luminis, for the debut concert by organist Anna Lapwood at the BBC Proms 2023. The piece received praise from various prominent broadsheets. The Times said: "Of the three new pieces it was Olivia Belli’s looping Limina Luminis, using the organ’s tubular bells, that stood out.", while The Telegraph praised the piece for being "the most arresting of this trio for its toccata-like effect". The Evening Standard added that: "The most immediately attractive of the three was Olivia Belli’s Limina Luminis, receiving its world premiere. Written especially for Lapwood, it began with a quiet, gently rocking figure that slowly built in complexity and volume, until suddenly the sound cleared away to a radiant shimmer: the 'threshold of light' that gave the work its title".

Belli has also spent the last two years working on her forthcoming fifth full-length album. Titled Intermundia, it is due for release on the 23rd of February 2024 on XXIM Records and has been preceded by a number of new singles.

Studio albums

 * My Piano Dolce Vita (piano) (2016)
 * Ludovico Einuadi: Stanze (piano) (2017)
 * Max Richter: Piano Works (piano) (2017)
 * Philip Glass: Piano Works (piano) (2017)
 * Where Night Never Comes (piano) (2018)
 * Philip Glass: Metamorphosis I-V (piano) (2019)
 * River Path (piano) (2020)
 * Mater feat. Enrico Belli (piano, strings, and synths) (2020)
 * Moonlight Recomposed feat. Enrico Belli (piano, strings, and synths) (2020)
 * Sol Novo (piano and strings) (2021)
 * Intermundia feat. John Metcalfe, Louisa Fuller, and Chris Worsey (piano and strings) (2024)

EPs

 * Ludovico Einaudi: Extra Elements (piano) (2018)
 * Erik Satie: 3 Gymnopedies (piano) (2018)
 * Erik Satie: 7 Gnossiennes (piano) (2018)
 * Other Lines (piano) (2018)
 * Where Night Never Comes (Remixes) (piano and synths) (2019)
 * Daguerréotypes (piano) (2019)
 * Four Moons feat. Enrico Belli (piano, strings, and synths) (2019)
 * The River Tributaries (piano) (2020)
 * Flowers We Are (piano) (2020)
 * Winter Variations (piano) (2021)
 * Somnio Novo feat. Slow Meadow, Hugar, and Ed Carlsen (piano and reworks) (2021)
 * Sonus Noctis (piano) (2022)

Singles

 * "Still Blue" feat. Enrico Belli (piano, strings, and synths) (2019)
 * "One For Sorrow" (piano) (2020)
 * "Noiseless Words (piano) (2020)
 * "Travelling Clouds" (Mellotron) (2020)
 * "Out Of The Deep" (piano) (2020)
 * "Entering" feat. Julia Kent (piano and cello) (2020)
 * "Threnody, After Mozart" (piano) (2022)
 * "Of Time (Bach Variations)" (piano) (2022)