The Silvia Bolognesi Quartet performs in the Smart Museum’s courtyard as part of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, a weekend of free performances at cultural venues across the neighborhood.

FREE, open to all.

Visit hydeparkjazzfestival.org for the complete schedule, safety guidelines, and other information.

About the performers

Silvia Bolognesi is a double bass player, composer, and arranger. She leads several bands: Open Combo, Almond Tree, Xilo Ensemble, Ju-Ju Sounds, Fonterossa Open Orchestra, Beast Friends, and Young Shouts. She is also part of the international string trio Hear in Now, with Tomeka Reid on cello and Mazz Swift on violin and vocals; the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s 50th Anniversary special project; and the Roscoe Mitchell Quintet. In 2010, Bolognesi founded her own label, Fonterossa Records. She is now also artistic director of the Fonterossa Day minifestival, hosted by Pisa Jazz, and the curator and conductor of the Fonterossa Open Orchestra, a creative orchestra based in Pisa since 2017. As a student, she studied double bass at the R. Franci Institute of Siena with Maestros Andrea Granai and Alberto Bocini, and jazz at the Siena Jazz Academy with Paolino dalla Porta, Furio di Castri, and Ferruccio Spinetti. The most significant encounters in her musical training were those with William Parker, Muhal Richard Abrams, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Roscoe Mitchell, and Antony Braxton. She now teaches double bass and combo at the Siena Jazz Academy and is a jazz double bass teacher at Conservatorio Statale di Palermo. She has been part of the “European exchange-Erasmus +” program for the Conservatory of Maastricht (Holland), Tbilisi (Georgia), Riga (Latvia), and Birmingham (UK) since 2016, and has run workshops on improvisation and "conduction" since 2008. 

The instrumentation of Young Shouts, as well as frequent moments of collective improvisation, exhibit the defining characteristics of the group as a classic modern jazz quartet. The quartet’s first recording, aLive Shouts, contains a Suite for Bessie Jones, which was inspired by the lyrics of songs made famous by the singer. The quartet’s second record, A Frame in the Crowd, is comprised completely of original compositions written and recorded during the pandemic and dedicated to a “missing” audience.

The musicians:

• Nick Mazzarella - alto saxophone
• Silvia Bolognesi - bass
• Others TBA