Emilio Solla

Emilio Solla is an Argentine-born, New York-based pianist and composer widely regarded as one of the most distinctive voices in tango-jazz, a language that fuses Argentine tango and folk with jazz and contemporary music. He trained in classical piano at the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires, where his early band Apertura drew praise from Astor Piazzolla, and later earned a master's degree in jazz composition at the Aaron Copland School of Music after settling in New York in 2006. Leading projects such as La Inestable de Brooklyn, he built a catalog of more than a dozen albums as a bandleader, winning the 2020 Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album with Second Half and earning six Grammy nominations over his career. In New York he has worked as a composer, arranger, and pianist alongside Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo O'Farrill, Edmar Castaneda, and Yo-Yo Ma. His writing and playing keep the melodic warmth of the tango tradition at the heart of an ambitious, large-ensemble sound.