Federico Calcagno (1995) is a clarinet and bass clarinet player, creative jazz musician and composer from Milan, Italy, and currently active between Italy and The Netherlands.
<<The new bishop of the best Italian Jazz [A. Bazzurro, All About Jazz] >> has considered on of the most exciting clarinet players and creative musicians of the young generation.
As composer, Federico regularly writes music for his bands: Federico Calcagno Octet, Liquid Identities, Piranha, The Dolphians, Fade in Trio.
As leader and co-leader, Federico has released eight albums till now: From Another Planet (2019), Liquid Identities (2020), Urlo d’Ebano (2021), Piranha (2021), Live Fast, Die a Legend (2022), Confini Labili (2022), Mundus Inversus (2024), All Ways (2024).

In September 2022 his composition “Eternal Rhythm” was performed at Gaudeamus festival, in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The work was written for NEUE (New European Ensemble), featuring the great Indian percussionist B. C. Manjunath.
In 2023 Federico got commissioned a new piece, I Frammenti, il Verbo e il Bianco, for Vagues saxophone quartet.


Federico studied classical and jazz clarinet at Milan Conservatory, and in 2019 he graduated in Jazz Master in bass clarinet at Amsterdam Conservatory and attended the International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada), directed by Vijay Iyer and Tyshawn Sorey.
Federico is currently working as professor in Milan Conservatory, teaching jazz ensembles and jazz clarinet.

Full List of Awards:

• Nominated in “Large Ensemble of the Year (International)” category at the Deutscher Jazz Preis 2025 with Federico Calcagno Octet
• Winner of “Keep an Eye Records 2023” with Federico Calcagno Octet (Amsterdam, 2023)
• Winner of “Tomorrow’s Jazz”with Fade In Trio (Venezia, 2021)
• Second Prize at Jazz Juniors Competition with The Dolphians (Krakow, 2021)
• MEI Super Stage Jazz with The Dolphians (Faenza, 2021)
• Premio Siae (Roma, 2021)
• Leiden Jazz Award with Jort Terwijn Önder (Leiden, 2021)
• Barga Jazz Contest with Francesca Remigi Archipelagos (Barga, 2021)
• Dutch Jazz Competition with Aviv Noam 4et (Amsterdam, 2021)
• Winner of “Concorso Nazionale Chicco Bettinardi” – Band Section, The Dolphians (Piacenza, 2021)
• Top Jazz 2020 by Musica Jazz Magazine: best new Italian talent 2020
• Premio Internazionale Giorgio Gaslini 2020
• “Nuova Generazione Jazz 2021” with Federico Calcagno & The Dolphians
• Second prize “Concorso Nazionale Bettinard”- Soloist Section (Piacenza, 2020)
• Best Tonal Improvisation – International Improvisation Contest René Arons, with Fade In Trio (Antwerp 2019)
• Second prize “International Keep an Eye Jazz Award” with Liquid Identities (Amsterdam, 2019)
• Critics prize and second prize “Concorso Internazionale Massimo Urbani” (Camerino, 2019)
• Premio del Conservatorio – Jazz Category with Tri(o)ttico (Milano, 2018)
• Second prize “Premio Nazionale delle Arti”- Jazz Category (Milano, 2017)
  
  

The clarinetist is one of the founders of Conserere, a collective for improvised music based in Milan, Italy, which regularly organizes workshops, concerts, and events in collaboration with renowned improvising musicians from the international scene.

In 2021, Federico founded a new independent label, Habitable Records, alongside other international artists such as Francesca Remigi, Killick Hinds, and Samuel Gapp. The label features a host of idiosyncratic voices from the space beyond genre, unified by expansive curiosity about the world of sound and the societal good that can come from it.

Federico has been active between Amsterdam, Milan and Bruxelles. He’s the leader of the bands The Dolphians, Liquid Identities, and co-leader of Fade in Trio and Piranha.
He regularly plays as sideman in the bands Aviv Noam 4et, Tijn Wybenga & AM.OK, Anais Drago “Terre Ballerine”, Adrian Moncada Sextet, Francesca Remigi’s Archipelagos, Önder, Coal Harbor, Marco Luparia Masna, Ferdinando Romano Invisible Painters, ONJGT. In 2019, he developed interests in the rhythms of Carnatic music and in the world of the Conduction as instant composition: with Stab Freeze Collective Federico found and developed common elements between “Butch” Morris’ Conduction, Walter Thompson’s Soundpainting and Frank Zappa’s way, demonstrating how a limited dictionary of gestures can be applied on a small orchestra with success.

Federico has performed in Europe, North America, Australia and Middle East, and played in various festivals as L’Off Jazz Montreal, Melbourne Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Cologne Jazz Week, Getxo Jazz, Bimhuis (Amsterdam), Jazz Sous Les Pommiers, Periscope (Lione), Amsterdam Jazz Fest, Edinburgh Jazz Festival, Gottinger Jazz Festival, So What’s Next (Eindhoven) , November Music, Bergamo Jazz, Umbria Jazz Winter, JazzMI, Vicenza Jazz, Novara Jazz, Firenze Jazz Festival, Nuoro Jazz, FestiValle, Pedras et Sonus, Fara Jazz, Ambria Jazz, Pisa Jazz.
Federico played with: Jonathan Finlayson, Tyshawn Sorey, Steve Lehman, Roscoe Mitchell, Ben Wendel, Maria Grand, Marta Sanchez, Dan Kinzelman, Frank Rosaly, Michael Vatcher, Steven Bernstein, Louis Cole, Franco D’Andrea, Tino Tracanna, Alfonso Santimone, Giovanni Falzone, Fausto Beccalossi, Attilio Zanchi, Giulio Corini, Anais Drago, Francesca Remigi, Reiner Baas, Ben van Gelder, Jean-Paul Estiévenart, Fuensanta Mendez, Martijn Vink, Joris Roelofs, Sun-Mi Hong, Kit Downes, Teis Semey, Kika Sprangers, Aviv Noam, Elias Stemeseder, Michele Rabbia, Daniele Roccato, Michelangelo Scandroglio, Claire Parsons, Selma Savolainen, Camilla Battaglia, Stefano Grasso, Filippo Rinaldo, Federica Michisanti, Ferdinando Romano, Helen Svoboda, Flora Carbo, Niran Dasika and many others…