Roberto Negro

Biography

Born in Turin in 1981, Roberto grew up in Kinshasa (DRC), where he began playing the piano at the age of five. Based in France since 1995, he graduated from the Chambéry conservatoire, then continued his studies in Paris, where he made several decisive encounters in the world of creative music.

As in his adventure with the Tricollectif, co-founded in 2011, Roberto feeds on crossings and encounters: voice (his creation Loving Suite for Birdy So, in 2012, a miniature opera with Élise Caron on texts by Xavier Machault), theatre (his work with Françoise Dô and Émilie Le Roux / Cie Les Veilleurs, for whom he has been composing since 2015), writing for large ensembles (his arrangements for the Grand Orchestre du Tricot, or his creation Newborn with musicians of the Ensemble intercontemporain).

In 2017 he formed the trio Dadada with saxophonist Émile Parisien and percussionist Michele Rabbia. The album Dadada, saison 3 (Label Bleu) was named a “Coup de cœur” by the Académie Charles Cros in 2017 and received the 2018 Victoires du Jazz in the “Breakthrough Album of the Year” category.

In 2020, Label Bleu released the new album by his quartet Papier Ciseau, a logical sequel to Dadada, featuring cellist and bassist Valentin Ceccaldi.

After several years of writing for small formats, from duo to quartet, and still eager to shift boundaries and drawn to large ensembles, Roberto Negro created in 2022 the piece Newborn with Michele Rabbia, Nicolas Crosse and the Ensemble intercontemporain; lighting design by Caty Olive.

In 2023, the album Les Métanuits was released on the ACT label, as a duo with Émile Parisien, with music inspired by Métamorphoses nocturnes by György Ligeti. In 2024, the album Newborn was released on the Parco della Musica label, with the Ensemble intercontemporain.

In 2025, he works on the creation of an orchestral form and of a new sixteen-musician ensemble, the Ensemble Godot, for a premiere in 2026. In 2026, Label Bleu releases Pärt & Songs, a solo album inspired by the music of Arvo Pärt and contemporary women poets, with mezzo-soprano Eva Zaïcik and cellist Eric-Maria Couturier.

Roberto Negro was an associate artist at Château Rouge - scène conventionnée d’Annemasse - from 2022 to 2026 and is currently an associate artist at the Maison de la Culture d’Amiens.
He is also supported by DRAC AURA, Région Rhône-Alpes, Centre International des Musiques Nomades (CIMN), Sacem, Spedidam and Adami.