.webp){kind=logo}
NAOMI BERRILL
Suite Dreams is the new recording project of Irish cellist and singer-songwriter Naomi Berrill, created in collaboration with Casa Musicale Sonzogno and released from Warner. The contents of the new CD are being premiered at the Festival.
Naomi Berrill has demonstrated in her first two albums, From the Ground and To the Sky, a unique versatility that allows her to unite different musical eras under a single signature. With her interpretive skills she succeeds to in leading her instrument into underexplored genres and worlds and to bring together, under the same pursuit, the pre-baroque elements of Barbara Strozzi to the singer-songwriter finesse of Nick Drake.
This is Naomi's third album, and the trait-d'union of this journey is dance: from those baroque dances so dear to the French court, through the Suites to the typical dances of international folklore.
The path that inspired the production of this album passes through the places dear to the cellist: Florence, where Naomi now lives from several years and where, thanks to the collaboration with choreographer Virgilio Sieni, she finds new atmospheres, animating workshops in the Isolotto neighborhood; Galway, her hometown, in a path of approach to "Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture," among immigrant communities from from war zones who are encouraged, through workshops, to to share their cultural background. In both cases, dance and music dialogue to bring to common ground the research behind Naomi's new compositions. Like those flocks of birds that fly above city skies creating original and light choreography, carried by the air but as if guided in a choral, sinuous and in some ways musical composition.
Irish cellist and songwriter, Naomi Berrill lives from many years to Florence. She is a multi-instrumentalist, with extreme genre versatility that allows her to collaborate with classical (Giovanni Sollima, Mario Brunello, Francesco Dillon, the 100 Cellos), jazz (Simone Graziano, Alessandro Lanzoni), contemporary (AlterEgo), baroque and folk musicians. He also collaborates permanently with the Company of choreographer Virgilio Sieni.
He has released two discs: From the ground (Lampi, 2014), reissued in Japan from Nature Bliss, a track from Purcell to Nick Drake for voice and cello, disc of the week for Rai Radio 3's Farenheit; To the Sky (Sonzogno/Egea Music, 2017), ten original pieces for voice, cello, guitar and piano.
Naomi Berrill´s albums have been reviewed in Internazionale, Il Fatto Quotidiano, l´Unità, Il Manifesto, Irish Times, Huffington Post and have been presented with live performances from Rai Radio 1, Rai Radio 2, Rai Radio 3, Radio Montecarlo, Radio Popolare. Among the many appreciative reviews was one by Ernesto Assante in "La Repubblica."
to July 2017 the artist premiered songs from To the Sky at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence for "Uffizi live" and in the auditorium of Radio Popolare to Milan. He produced HandmadeMusic a video series of 13 mini-documentaries in as many artisan workshops that will become a documentary and 3 official videos: Black is the color (Gian Maria Musarra), Between the Bliss (Cristina Crippi) and Lady Lighthouse (Bulabosca).
Naomi Berrill directs "High Notes," a music festival in the Apuan Alps, and the "Jazz of a Midsummer Night" festival during Florentine Summer.
She has played at the Cello Biennale in Amsterdam, the Spoleto Festival, the Milan Triennale, the Venice Biennale, I Suoni delle Dolomiti, the Antiruggine Festival in Castelfranco, the Oriente Occidente Festival in Rovereto, the Orestiadi in Gibellina, and the Amici della Musica in Mestre; in Ireland she was a guest on Lyric FM and was selected for the "Other Voices" Festival; she is also collaborating with Galway 2020 (European Capital of Culture).
On the occasion of "St. Patrick´s Day" 2019, at the Ice Music Festival, he played an ice cello in a theater-hygloo built on the Presena Glacier, to 2,600 meters above sea level.
His new album for Warner Music, which he is presenting at the Spoleto Festival, will later be presented at the Macerata Opera Festival and the Sounds of the Dolomites.