A young Italian pianist and composer, rooted in jazz but drawing equally on classical music, cinema and contemporary sounds, performs at the Manoel Theatre on Sunday.
Francesco Cavestri is only 23 but his musical maturity and experience belie his age. He began playing the piano at four, trained classically for a decade before turning to jazz, and graduated with highest honours in jazz piano from the Conservatory of Bologna at just 20. He also studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston and received two scholarships to The New School in New York, experiences that helped shape both his sound and approach to composition. His debut album was released in 2022, during this formative period of study and artistic growth.
Since 2019, he has performed at some of Italy’s leading jazz venues and festivals, and this year he started performing more extensively abroad, with concerts in Stuttgart, Cologne, Chicago, New York, Ankara, Hamburg, the Steinway Hall in Dubai and Jazz Bistro in Toronto.
He has collaborated with some of the most important names in Italian jazz and beyond. His latest album NOÈ, released in May 2025 by Universal Music Italia, was named ‘Global Album of the Week’ by digital music store Qobuz upon release.
The designated Steinway artist has also been recognised three consecutive times as ‘Youngest New Talent of the Year’ by Musica Jazz magazine, in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Here Cavestri shares the influences that have shaped his music, the ideas behind his latest work and what the audience is to expect from Sunday’s concert.
What is your inspiration and how do you describe your sound?
My inspiration comes from many worlds. I grew up on jazz – Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue was a turning point for me as a kid − but I’m equally drawn to classical music, electronics, film scores and even hip-hop. I also studied philosophy and classical literature, and that way of thinking inevitably finds its way into my music.
I’d describe my sound as cinematic and lyrical: rooted in the jazz tradition, but open to orchestral colours, electronic textures and a strong narrative sense.
Your latest album, NOÈ, draws on a wide range of musical and cultural influences. Can you tell us about the ideas behind it and how it reflects your evolution as an artist?
NOÈ is my fourth album, and it arrives after a journey I feel has been building towards exactly this moment. My first three records each taught me something essential − about composition, about working in the studio, about finding my own voice − but with NOÈ I feel I’ve made a real leap forward, both in compositional maturity and in production, also thanks to the work of Luca Mattioni and the entire Universal Music Italia team.
A lot of that growth comes from my time spent in the US, especially at Berklee and in New York. There I was able to internalise a vision of jazz as a genre that welcomes influences and stimuli from every direction. That idea is at the very heart of NOÈ.
The title draws on the biblical figure of Noah: the craftsman who gathers and shelters different species and worlds within the ark to find salvation. In the same way, I welcome different musical worlds and genres to give life to my own artistic language − one that, while rooted firmly in jazz, can be personal and deeply my own. The cover image amplifies this idea too: it’s inspired by Philippe Halsman’s portrait of Jean Cocteau, a poet and artist who became a symbol of versatility and openness towards different art forms.
The album has 10 tracks which follow Noah’s journey and his encounter with the storm. It opens with the foreboding intro Omen of a Sea and builds towards Freedom, the album’s peak of intensity, which plunges us into the heart of the tempest − not as something negative, but as a space for abstraction and search that leads towards a new destination.
After the storm, I return to my origins with pieces like Breathless River, a solo piano meditation that drifts between echoes of Mahler and Joe Hisaishi. And just as Ararat was Noah’s final landing, Souvenir di un Bacio, is the destination of the whole path − a piece where I seal the album with a dimension I’d never explored before: the symphonic orchestra (the Budapest Scoring Orchestra).
Is it your first time in Malta and how do you feel about performing at the Manoel before a Maltese audience?
Yes, this is my very first time in Malta, and I couldn’t be more excited. Performing at the Manoel Theatre is a real privilege − it’s one of the oldest working theatres in Europe, and there’s something deeply moving about playing in a space with that kind of history.
Also, bringing my music and jazz to a wonderful opera theatre is thrilling, especially for a pianist like me who has been majorly inspired by Keith Jarrett, a piano legend who has played jazz and improvised music in opera halls all around the world.
I am also genuinely looking forward to meeting the Maltese audience: every audience has its own energy, and part of what I love most about touring abroad is discovering how my music resonates in different places and cultures. Bringing NOÈ to a new country and a new public, for the first time, makes the occasion feel even more special.
What will the programme include?
I’ll open with a solo piano set, which is the most intimate way for me to share my world: it moves between my own compositions − like Souvenir di un Bacio and The Essence of Beauty − and pieces that have shaped my imagination, from Nino Rota’s main theme for Fellini’s Amarcord to a reworking that brings together Massive Attack’s Teardrop and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. There’s also a moment of the concert dedicated to complete free improvisation, which is one of the essential elements of jazz.
In the second half I’m joined by two incredible musicians, Mattia Basetti on drums and Moreno di Matteo on bass and double bass, which will bring a different energy and will let the pieces open up in new directions. We’ll perform several pieces from NOÈ, alongside a dialogue between John Coltrane’s Naima and Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place, which is a good example of how I like to let jazz and other worlds speak to each other.
This year also marks the centenary of Miles Davis’s birth, so I’ve included a tribute to him − he’s been a fundamental influence on me ever since I first heard Kind of Blue as a boy. We’ll also play Entropia, my collaboration with Willie Peyote, and close with an encore of IKI − Bellezza Ispiratrice.
It’s a journey between solo and trio, introspection and energy, original music and the artists who shaped me − and I hope it takes the audience somewhere.
What are your plans after Malta?
The summer ahead is full of live dates, especially across Italy. I’ll be playing the Caorle Piano Festival, and on August 10, I’ll be performing in the main square of Corciano, near Perugia. Open-air concerts like these have a very special atmosphere, and I love the direct connection with the audience they create. This year has taken me well beyond Italy’s borders too, and that international momentum is something I want to keep building on.
Alongside the live shows, I’m always writing. NOÈ is still very young as a record, so a big part of the coming months is about bringing it to new audiences and new countries, much as I’m doing in Malta and I’ve done in US, Canada, Germany, Turkey, etc… But I already have ideas taking shape for what comes next, and I’m excited to keep exploring the directions this album opened up: the meeting of jazz, orchestral writing and electronics.
But right now, I’m 100% focused on giving the best possible performance at the Manoel Theatre, a venue I feel incredibly grateful to play in.
Francesco Cavestri Solo & Trio Jazz Concert at the Manoel is organised by the Italian Cultural Institute and the Italian Embassy in Malta. The concert starts at 8pm. Tickets from teatrumanoel.mt.
