Rosario Di Rosa is a Sicilian musician and composer whose work is defined by a constant search for dialogue between different musical worlds: jazz, contemporary composition and experimental electronics. His musical vision treats sound as living matter, composed of layers, fragments, and perceptual relationships between the acoustic and the electronic.

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He studied visual arts with painter Alfredo Campo, jazz piano with Salvatore Bonafede, classical piano with Leonardo Leonardi and Manuela Dalla Fontana, and composition with Riccardo Dapelo. He graduated in Architecture from the University of Palermo in 2002, and later earned both the Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Jazz Piano with top marks and honors at the Conservatorio “G. Nicolini” in Piacenza, studying under Umberto Petrin (2017).

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As a jazz pianist he has participated in several clinics and master classes, such as those of Siena Jazz, Nuoro in Jazz, Marsala Jazz directed by great musicians such as John Taylor, Ralph Towner, Elvin Jones, Enrico Rava, Joshua Redman, James Carter, Stefano Battaglia, Franco D’Andrea, Enrico Pieranunzi, Gianluigi Trovesi, Bruno Tommaso, Massimo Moriconi and Marc Ducret. 

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Early in his career, he was selected among the 50 most promising young pianists worldwide to participate in the Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition in Paris.

 

He has received multiple awards, including the Jazzit Award (2010, 2012, 2015), and has been repeatedly named “Best New Talent” and “Musician of the Year.” In 2015, his trio was ranked second among the best ensembles of the year by Musica Jazz magazine’s Top Jazz poll.

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Alongside his activity as a pianist, Di Rosa has developed a deeply personal approach to electronic music. What began as self-taught experimentation has become central to his creative practice. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Electronic Music at the Conservatory of Cagliari, under the guidance of Daniele Ledda, Paolo Pastorino and Sandro Mungianu, focusing on the relationship between body, sound, and space.

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In recent years, he has released several critically acclaimed albums, including Zehra (Deep Voice Records, 2020) and Studio disarmonico di un attimo (Slowth Records, 2021), both selected among the best records of the year by the respected blog Percorsi Musicali.

 

In 2022, he released a double album on New York-based Chant Records, inspired by the visionary graphic world of Professor Bad Trip (Gianluca Lerici), a key figure in Italy’s underground comics scene.

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In 2024, he founded the trio Rosario Di Rosa User43 with improvisers Stefano Maltese (Marilyn Crispell, Louis Sclavis) and Carlo Cattano (Maria Schneider, Paolo Fresu). Their album Amplified Speaking Space, released on the French label Sonic Dialogue, was conceived inside the MACBA – Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, and incorporates field recordings from the museum's installations. The work was selected for the Wrong Biennale 2024, an international art event dedicated to contemporary visual culture.

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Also in 2024, Di Rosa released I want to hear and see everything on the acclaimed European label Shimmering Moods Records, further deepening his path in ambient and experimental sound art.

 

In 2025, his compositions were presented at several international festivals, including Ars Electronica in Linz (Austria)—one of the world’s leading platforms for electronic art and sound innovation—and the audiovisual composition festival Syncresis in Spain.

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He has collaborated live or in the studio with:

Paul Jeffrey, Woody Shaw Jr., Artchipel Orchestra, Vito Giordano, Mimmo Cafiero, Stefano D’Anna, Giampaolo Casati, Pietro Tonolo, Stefano Maltese, Andrea Tidona (actor), Attilio Zanchi, Carlo Nicita, Giovanni Falzone, Alberto N. A. Turra, Sarah Stride, Camilla Barbarito, Eloisa Manera, Davide Bussoleni, Stefano Grasso, Placido Salamone, Pino Guarrella, Paolo Dassi, Riccardo Tosi, Piero Bittolo Bon, Paolo Botti, Alberto Gurrisi, Jimmy Weinstein, Panagiotis Andreou, Angiolo Tarocchi Jazz Orchestra, Daniele Cavallanti, Beppe Caruso, Tiziano Tononi, Massimo Falascone, Milano Music Collective, Riccardo Luppi, Luca Calabrese, Francesco Chiapperini, Enzo Frassi, Valerio Abeni, Adalberto Ferrari, Tito Mangialajo, Ferdinando Faraò, Francesco D’Auria, Francesco Cafiso, Massimo Moriconi, Emilia Zamuner, Alberto Cavenati, Tommaso Starace, Marco Mistrangelo, Tommy Bradascio, Calogero Marrali, Dino Rubino, Carlo Cattano, Tony Cattano, Antonio Moncada, Alessandro Nobile, Alberto Fidone, Giuseppe Tringali, Giulio Corini, Stefano Bertoli, Carmelo Coglitore, Cristiano Calcagnile, Yuri Goloubev, Enzo Augello, Massimo Pintori, Marco Zanoli, Thomas Grimmonprez, Jean-Philippe Morel, Nina the BlackMill, Deasonika, and many others.