Emilia Vancini playing at San Lorenzo Auditorium, Cento (Fe)

photo: Martino Agnoletto

I was born in Cento, a small town near Bologna, in Northern Italy. At home my mother and sister played the piano and I also started taking piano lessons when I was seven years old. I loved listening to classical music, at 10 I had already built up a considerable classical record collection.

My two brothers and my sister contributed greatly to my musical education. The record player was always on. Each one of them had their favourite style: British and American pop, blues, rock, Italian pop music.... I spent my youth listening to this music and singing it. I had a wonderful piano teacher: Maria Teresa Marescalchi Ferioli. She stimulated me to study regularly and to prepare for the exams at the music academies near Cento. As a teen-ager I took my Music Theory Exam at the Conservatory "Giovan Battista Martini" in Bologna and I started studying for my Grade 8 piano exam (Esame di quinto anno, equivalent to Grade 8 in the UK) which I took at the Conservatory "Orazio Vecchi" in Modena.

But nothing ever gave me more joy than singing. I gave my first performance as a singer with the Prosecco Blues Band in my native Cento. The audience's warm reception made me feel that singing was my calling. Yet I didn't dare to declare myself a singer. Practicing music as a hobby and finding myself a "real" job seemed to be much more sensible. Having always loved to study foreign languages, I decided to go to London, where I studied English and I worked for three years. Later I moved on to Berlin, where I spent one year working and studying German. While staying abroad I kept the music going by singing with various choirs: the London Ripieno Society and the Square Singers of St. James's in London and the choir of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche in Berlin.

In Berlin I used to go to a bar in Kantstrasse where live jazz was played. It wasn't my first encounter with this kind of music, my father listened to jazz and I had always liked it, but hearing it played live made me love it madly. Since those days jazz is my greatest passion.

Back in Italy, I worked as a secretary, as a translator and finally as a ground stewardess at the airport of Bologna.

In 1992 I moved to Holland where I started devoting myself fully to the study of jazz music. In the meantime I have been performing with pianist Augusto Pirodda, guitarist Peter Denissen, with trumpet player Victor Borkent's octet "Vic's!" and with Big Band "Straight Life" (directed by Victor Borkent).

Studying classical singing with Heent Prins was an invaluable experience. Amongst my jazz singing teachers, those who have left a strong mark on me are Susanne Abbuehl and Jeanne Lee.

I never lost track of my Italian roots, recording the cd "Canzoni e standards" in 1998 with Gianluca Masetti on saxophone, Denis Biancucci on piano and Tiziano Zanotti on double-bass. In this cd I made a first attempt to celebrate the canzone italiana from the '50s to the present day. In Italy we have many great composers. My dream is that these composers and cantautori might be better known outside of Italy as well.

My second cd: “Whatever possessed me” was released in 2009. It’s a showcase of the music I love the most: jazz standards, the work of Italian cantautori and Brazilian songs. In 2018 “In a sentimental mood” came out. An EP with Italian songs and jazz standards. My fourth album “And if you fall, you fall” a collection of jazz standards performed live in the studio with Italian pianist Augusto Pirodda, was released in 2020.

At the end of July my fifth studio album will be released: “Pigri” recorded in The Hague with Spanish drummer Guillermo Martín-Viana.