Roberto Negro

Born in Turin in 1981, Roberto Negro grew up in Kinshasa before settling in France in 1995, a path that partly illuminates a writing open to the flows between jazz, contemporary music and improvisation. A pianist, composer and producer, Negro trained notably at the Chambéry Conservatory and later in Paris, where he developed work at the edge of creation music. Co-founder of Tricollectif in 2011, he subsequently expanded formats from solo to large ensemble, with a constant attention to the dialogue between composition and spontaneous performance. His discography as leader or co-leader includes Downtown Sorry (2010), Loving Suite for Birdy So (2014), Garibaldi Plop (2017), Kings & Bastards (2018), Papier Ciseau (2020), Les Métanuits with Émile Parisien (2023) and Newborn with the Ensemble intercontemporain (2024). Negro has also developed projects with Théo Ceccaldi, Sylvain Darrifourcq, Michele Rabbia or Élise Caron, as well as regular work for theater. His piano playing emphasizes timbre contrasts, fragmented forms, a taste for an oblique melody and flexible rhythmic constructions, in a language that intertwines written music, improvised freedom, and a sense of collective stage presence.