Emilio Solla

Pianist • Composer • Arranger • Educator

Latin GRAMMY® winner and six-time GRAMMY® nominee Emilio Solla is an Argentineborn, New York-based pianist, composer, and arranger. He earned his degree in Classical Piano from the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires and an M.A. in Jazz Composition from the Aaron Copland School of Music in New York.

His first project, Apertura, was praised by Astor Piazzolla in 1986 as one of the most exciting new sounds on the Buenos Aires music scene. Today, with fifteen albums as a bandleader and more than fifty recordings as an arranger and producer, Solla is widely recognized as one of the leading voices in Tango Jazz—a distinctive musical language that blends Argentine tango and folk traditions with jazz and contemporary music. He has performed throughout Europe, Japan, the United States, and Latin America, appearing at many of the world’s leading jazz venues and festivals, including Bimhuis, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Blue Note, Marciac Jazz Festival, Fasching, and many others.

Solla moved to Barcelona in 1996 and to New York in 2006. Since then, he has collaborated with artists including Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo O’Farrill, Yo-Yo Ma, Edmar Castañeda, and many other distinguished figures in both jazz and classical music as a composer, arranger, and pianist. In New York, he has performed regularly with his various projects at Jazz Standard, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, and other prominent venues. Former members of his ensembles include Donny McCaslin, Chris Cheek, Omer Avital, Jorge Rossy, Jeff Ballard, and many others.

While continuing to tour throughout Europe and the United States with his own bands, Solla remains active as a freelance arranger, composer, and pianist. His New York-based quintet, Bien Sur!, released its debut album in 2010 featuring special guest Billy Hart. The recording was selected as one of DownBeat magazine’s Best Albums of 2010.

In 2010, Solla founded the nine-piece ensemble La Inestable de Brooklyn, featuring some of New York City’s finest jazz musicians. The group’s debut album, Second Half (2015), received a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album.

In 2014, Solla’s first symphonic work received its world premiere at the Palau de la Música Catalana during the Barcelona Jazz Festival, followed by its U.S. premiere at Chicago Symphony Hall, performed by the Chicago Sinfonietta. In 2017, he returned to Buenos Aires for the premiere of the orchestral version of his Suite Piazzollana.

In 2018, he founded the 17-piece Tango Jazz Orchestra, further expanding his unique synthesis of Latin American music and jazz. The ensemble released its debut album, Puertos: Music from International Waters, in 2019. The recording won the 2020 Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz/Jazz Album, while Solla’s composition La Novena received a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Arrangement.

In 2023, Solla released two major projects: a new quartet recording with flamenco singer and saxophonist Antonio Lizana, and RITMO, a symphonic tribute to Chick Corea featuring Paquito D’Rivera on Warner Classics, for which he wrote all of the arrangements and orchestrations. The album received two Latin Grammy nominations and one Grammy nomination. During the same period, he also wrote commissioned arrangements for the WDR Big Band under the direction of Vince Mendoza.

In 2026, Solla released HANDMADE, his fifteenth album as a bandleader and the second recording by La Inestable de Brooklyn. Featuring nine original compositions, the album celebrates craftsmanship and artistic creation through a richly orchestrated blend of jazz, tango, and Latin American traditions.

An accomplished educator, Solla has taught extensively at conservatories and universities in Argentina, Spain, and the United States. He is currently a faculty member at The New School in New York and has been invited as a guest artist and clinician at Emory University, the University of Kansas, the University of Nebraska, Bates College, the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama (Sweden), the Pop & Jazz Conservatory (Finland), Western Michigan University, and many other institutions.