Stefano Bollani and Enrico Rava at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, December 23, 2026

Stefano Bollani and Enrico Rava play together at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone on Wednesday, December 23, 2026, at 8:00 p.m., in the Sala Santa Cecilia, at Viale Pietro de Coubertin 30 (00196 Rome). It is a duo concert, piano and trumpet, by two musicians who have known each other since 1996 and have recorded more than 15 albums together. To get there, take Metro A to Flaminio and then tram 2 (Flaminia/Reni or Apollodoro stops), or bus 910 from Termini. Tickets start at 35 euros, according to the official event page, and are bought from the Auditorium's website, which links to the presale network authorized by the organizers, or at the complex's box office.

The official presentation speaks of a sonic representation of the bond between two icons of jazz, and takes up a description that has been going around for years: the most beautiful couple in jazz, paraphrasing a famous Italian song of the 1960s. The repertoire draws on standards, Brazilian music, Italian song, and the two players' original pieces. Two days before Christmas, in the largest hall of the complex, it is the most anticipated jazz concert of the Roman holidays.

Bollani and Rava in Rome: date, time, and tickets

The concert by Stefano Bollani and Enrico Rava is scheduled for Wednesday, December 23, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. in the Sala Santa Cecilia of the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, as part of the Fondazione Musica per Roma's jazz programming.

The price

The event page lists tickets starting at 35 euros. The Sala Santa Cecilia has a wide orchestra section and several sections at the sides and behind the stage: rates vary according to position and appear on the map at the time of purchase.

Where to buy

The purchase button on the official page leads to the presale network authorized by the organizers. The physical box office is inside the complex, at Viale Pietro de Coubertin 30: from October to March the site lists hours from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sundays and holidays included. The ticketing rules published by the Auditorium warn that tickets bought on unauthorized secondary platforms may not be valid.

A Wednesday before Christmas

December 23 falls on a Wednesday, right before Christmas Eve. For many Romans it is the last free evening before family dinners, and for those coming from out of town it is a convenient date for a short Christmas trip. A ticket for this concert is also an easy Christmas gift: it's best to decide early.

What you'll hear: the piano and trumpet duo

The Bollani and Rava duo has no published setlist: the official presentation names the sources from which the dialogue draws its sap, namely jazz standards, Brazilian music, Italian song, and original pieces, in a continuous play of cross-references.

The standards

The first reservoir is the classic jazz repertoire, the American songs every jazz player knows by heart and that in a duo become a ground for conversation. Rava, who in his long career has devoted projects to Chet Baker and George Gershwin, and Bollani, who has recorded Gershwin with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, share a common language on this ground.

Brazil

The second is Brazilian music, loved by both. Bollani has devoted whole albums to it, from BollaniCarioca to Que bom, recorded in Rio de Janeiro with Caetano Veloso and João Bosco among the guests. Rava, who lived for a period in Argentina in the 1960s, brings to the duo his attraction to the music of South America.

Italian song and originals

The third is Italian songs, which both have worked with outside of jazz as well, and original pieces. Rava is a prolific composer and Bollani has always written: the evening alternates themes by different authors with pages by the two protagonists.

The understanding of the moment

The rest, says the presentation, is done by their understanding: the poetic, melodic vein of Rava's trumpet alongside Bollani's extroverted, often playful pianism. In a duo there is no rhythm section to keep time: they keep it themselves, passing it from hand to hand.

Bollani and Rava: 30 years of partnership

Enrico Rava called Stefano Bollani to his side in 1996, when the pianist was 24, since then the two have given hundreds of concerts around the world and recorded more than 15 albums.

The master and the student

Bollani has recalled several times that he met Rava in 1996 and considers him his mentor: thanks to him, he has said, he came to know the world's most prestigious stages, in formations ranging from duo to symphony orchestra. Rava is, after all, among the Italian jazz musicians who have done the most to bring young talents to the fore, from Gianluca Petrella to Paolo Fresu, from Mauro Ottolini to Julian Oliver Mazzariello.

The records together

The shared discography begins with Certi angoli segreti in 1998 and continues with Rava Plays Rava and Shades of Chet in 1999, Montreal Diary/B in 2001, Tati in 2005, The Third Man, a duo album for ECM nominated as best jazz album at the 2008 Italian Jazz Awards, and New York Days in 2009, with Mark Turner, Larry Grenadier, and Paul Motian.

The lineups

Bollani has played in Rava's quintet and in the Enrico Rava US Quintet with Mark Turner, Larry Grenadier, and Jeff Ballard. Over the decades each has taken his own road, but the duo has remained a constant: a dialogue, says the presentation, never interrupted despite the heterogeneity of both men's projects.

Who Stefano Bollani is: biography

Stefano Bollani was born in Milan on December 5, 1972, and is a pianist, composer, and singer, also active as a writer, stage actor, and radio and television host.

Studies in Florence

Raised between Bologna and Florence, he started piano at six and at 15 was already playing professionally. From age 11 he studied jazz with Luca Flores, then with Mauro Grossi and Franco D'Andrea, in 1993 he graduated from the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence. After a brief stint as a session player in pop with Raf and Jovanotti, from the mid-1990s he established himself in jazz.

Piano solo and the big prizes

In 1998 the magazine Musica Jazz named him best new talent. In 2006 came Piano solo for ECM, Musica Jazz's album of the year, which also named him Italian musician of the year. In 2007 he won the Hans Koller European Jazz Prize, in 2009 he played a duet with Chick Corea, a meeting documented on the album Orvieto, in 2010 the Berklee College of Music awarded him an honorary degree.

Classical music

In 2010 he recorded for Decca Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester conducted by Riccardo Chailly: the album entered the Italian top 10, something never seen before for a classical record, and went platinum. He has played with La Scala's Filarmonica, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Orchestre de Paris, and the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Daniel Harding, and Antonio Pappano.

Radio, television, and film

On Rai Radio 3 he created Il Dottor Djembè with David Riondino and Mirko Guerrini, on television he hosted Sostiene Bollani, L'importante è avere un piano, and, with Valentina Cenni, Via dei Matti numero 0, which won the Flaiano prize in 2021. In film he won the Nastro d'argento in 2021 with Carosello Carosone and the David di Donatello in 2023 for the score of Il Pataffio. In 2021 he received the Premio Tenco for lifetime achievement, since 2016 he has been a commendatore of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Recent years

In 2023 Bollani released Blooming, a new solo piano album, and in 2024 the 18 Preludi for piano, in 2025 his book Il tempo della stravaganza came out from Mondadori. In the same year he was the protagonist of the documentary Tutta vita, directed by his wife Valentina Cenni, in which he brings together musicians such as Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu, Daniele Sepe, Antonello Salis, Roberto Gatto, and his daughter Frida Bollani Magoni: the film was shown out of competition at the twentieth Rome Film Festival, right at the Auditorium, and was released in theaters on April 1, 2026.

Who Enrico Rava is: biography

Enrico Rava was born in Trieste on August 20, 1939, and is a trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, and writer.

From Turin to Rome

From a Piedmontese family, he grew up in Turin and began as a self-taught trombonist in Dixieland bands. In the early 1960s he moved to Rome, where he worked with Gato Barbieri and Steve Lacy: with Barbieri he recorded in 1965 the soundtrack written by Piero Umiliani for Giuliano Montaldo's Una bella grinta, with Lacy he recorded in Argentina, in 1966, The Forest and the Zoo, an album considered among the 10 essentials of free jazz.

New York

In 1967 he settled in New York, where he lived for about 10 years: he played with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra and took part in Carla Bley's Escalator over the Hill. In 1972 he recorded his first album as a leader, Il giro del giorno in 80 mondi, from 1975 began his long relationship with the ECM label, with The Pilgrim and the Stars.

Collaborations

In his career he has worked with Lee Konitz, Pat Metheny, Michel Petrucciani, John Abercrombie, Joe Henderson, Paul Motian, Richard Galliano, Miroslav Vitous, Joe Lovano, with whom he recorded Roma in 2019, and Roswell Rudd. He has also played in the Italian singer-songwriter tradition, on records by Ivano Fossati, Gino Paoli, and Ornella Vanoni.

Books and honors

He wrote Note necessarie with Alberto Riva, for Minimum Fax in 2004, and Incontri con musicisti straordinari for Feltrinelli in 2011. He is a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, honorary doctor of the Berklee College of Music, and, since 2018, a cavaliere of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. His sound, warm and personal, favors slow and medium tempos, with sudden climbs into the high register.

The latest records

In 2020 Rava released digitally For Mario, recorded live in 2016 with Matthew Herbert and Giovanni Guidi and dedicated to Mario Guidi, his manager and friend, in 2021 came Edizione Speciale for ECM, with Francesco Bearzatti, Francesco Diodati, Giovanni Guidi, Gabriele Evangelista, and Enrico Morello. In 2022 he received the Premio Internazionale Cicognini. A documentary is devoted to his life, Enrico Rava. Note necessarie by Monica Affatato, from 2016, and the trumpeter also appears in Tutta vita, Valentina Cenni's 2025 film.

A curiosity about Stefano Bollani and Enrico Rava at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, December 23, 2026

The most interesting curiosity concerns Rava and the Auditorium. In 2009 Renzo Piano's complex entrusted him with the direction of the Jazz Lab, a workshop with which the trumpeter realized projects such as Rava suona Gershwin and Rava on the Dance Floor, devoted to the music of Michael Jackson rearranged with Mauro Ottolini. The latter became an ECM album in 2012. On December 23 Rava thus returns to a house in which he has played a role as director, as well as soloist.

The second curiosity is a coincidence of dates. Stefano Bollani has played several times with the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, which has its home in the hall of the same name, on the night of the concert the pianist steps onto the same stage in the opposite guise, without an orchestra, with a single trumpet beside him. The contrast between a hall born for the great symphony orchestra and a duo of two instruments is part of the evening's charm.

The third is a comic-book curiosity: the pianist inspired Paperefano Bolletta, a musician friend of Donald Duck who first appeared in issue 2808 of Topolino, on September 22, 2009, and returned in two other stories with their respective covers. No other Italian jazz musician has had a Disney alter ego.

The Sala Santa Cecilia of the Auditorium

The Sala Santa Cecilia is the largest of the halls of the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, with over 2,700 seats, and was inaugurated on December 21, 2002, with the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Myung-whun Chung.

The cherry-wood ceiling

The ceiling is formed by 26 shells of American cherry wood that act as an acoustic mirror, the reverberation time, 2.2 seconds, is a rare value in Italy. The complex's acoustic design was overseen by Jürgen Reinhold of the Müller-BBM firm in Munich.

A symphonic hall for a duo

The hall is designed for the great orchestra, and hosting just two musicians is a choice that says a lot about the duo's draw. The audience surrounds the stage on the sides and behind as well: those seated behind see Bollani head-on, with his hands on the keyboard, and Rava in profile.

The complex

For the complete story of Renzo Piano's complex, its halls, and the cavea, there is the listing for the Auditorium Parco della Musica.

Something nobody tells you about Stefano Bollani and Enrico Rava at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, December 23, 2026

What is rarely said is that a duo in a hall of nearly 3,000 seats changes the nature of listening. In a club the piano and trumpet reach the ear directly, in the Sala Santa Cecilia the sound spreads out, and the nuances of Rava, who often plays softly and in the middle register, call for a quiet audience. The practical advice is simple: cough between pieces, not during them, and leave your phone in your pocket.

The second thing seldom said concerns Rava's age. In December the trumpeter will be 87, and his way of playing has become over the years ever more essential: fewer notes, more silences, more weight on every phrase. Those who heard him in the 1990s will find a different musician, and in our view a more interesting one. Bollani, 33 years younger, moves around this essentiality, filling in, lightening, sometimes joking.

Third thing, a practical one: the same night, at the Auditorium, two other concerts are scheduled, Indaco in the Teatro Studio and Cartoon Heroes in the Sala Petrassi. Three different audiences, at the same hour, in the same foyers and the same parking lots: arriving with a good margin is not excessive caution.

The tip I give you for visiting Stefano Bollani and Enrico Rava at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, December 23, 2026

The tip is to listen first to The Third Man, the duo album released by ECM: it is the document closest to what you'll hear in the hall, with the same balance between Rava's lyrical trumpet and Bollani's mobile piano. Those with more time should add Tati and New York Days, to hear the two in larger formations.

The second tip concerns the seat. In a duo the eye contact between the musicians is half the show: the center orchestra section, at a medium distance, lets you see both and catch the glances with which they pass the theme. The upper side sections usually cost less and remain enjoyable, because the hall's acoustics are good everywhere.

The third concerns after the concert. On December 23 many restaurants in northern Rome are full of company dinners and holiday toasts: if you want to dine afterward you must book. Alternatively, a light dinner beforehand, around 6:30, leaves the evening free for the trip home.

How to get to the Auditorium for Bollani and Rava

The Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone is reached by tram 2, stops Flaminia/Reni or Apollodoro, and by buses 910, 53, 982, and 168, the nearest metro station is Flaminio, on Line A.

Metro A and tram 2

From Flaminio station you go up to Piazzale Flaminio and take tram 2 along Via Flaminia, to Flaminia/Reni or Apollodoro. From there you walk across the Olympic Village to the entrance, in a few minutes.

The 910 from Termini

Bus 910 leaves from Piazza dei Cinquecento, in front of Termini station, and stops in front of the Auditorium with no transfers. The 53 connects Piazza Mancini with the center, the 982 comes from Quattro Venti station, the 168 from Tiburtina station. In the days before Christmas the schedules may change: it's best to check them on Atac's route planner.

By car and the return trip

The complex has a paid internal parking lot with limited spaces, on the evening of December 23, with three concerts at once, it will fill up early. For the return, tram 2 takes you back to Piazzale Flaminio, or you can book a taxi a few minutes before the end.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely mentioned

It is well known that Enrico Rava was Stefano Bollani's teacher. Less often remembered is that Rava has been a kind of talent scout for an entire generation of Italian jazz: in his groups grew up Gianluca Petrella, Giovanni Guidi, Mauro Ottolini, Andrea Pozza, Daniele Tittarelli, Julian Oliver Mazzariello, and Paolo Fresu too is on the list. The December 23 duo is the most famous portrait of this vocation.

Another little-cited fact: Rava has a long Roman history. He moved to the city in the early 1960s, and it was in Rome that he met Gato Barbieri and Steve Lacy, the musicians with whom his international career began. In 2019 he titled Roma the album recorded for ECM with Joe Lovano.

And a fact about television. Rava appeared in 1959, at 20, in a Carosello series for a soap, together with Johnny Dorelli, Gianfranco Intra's orchestra, Franco Cerri, and a young Enzo Jannacci on baritone sax. Half a century later, his student Bollani would become one of the most popular musical faces on Italian television.

The right photo to take at Stefano Bollani and Enrico Rava at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, December 23, 2026

During the concert no photos are taken: in an acoustic duo every lit screen distracts whoever sits behind, and the musicians feel it. The right photo is taken beforehand, from your seat, or outside, on the cavea.

From your seat, before the start, the subject is the hall itself: the stage with the grand piano and a music stand, under the cherry-wood shells of the ceiling. It's an image that tells the evening better than any portrait: two instruments in a space designed for a hundred orchestra players.

Outside, at 7 p.m. on a late December day, it has long been dark. From the cavea, the stepped square at the center of the complex, you frame the lead-clad shells of the halls lit against the sky: it's the most recognizable image of the Auditorium, and at Christmas the foyer lights make it even warmer.

Some important events that have happened here through history

The history of this area is older than the complex. During the excavation for the foundations the remains of a Roman villa of the third century BC emerged, built on the site of an archaic farmhouse of the sixth century BC. Renzo Piano changed the design to preserve them, the remains can be seen from the terrace between the Sala Santa Cecilia and the Sala Sinopoli, and the finds are displayed in a small museum under the cavea.

The modern story begins with an absence. In 1936 the Augusteo, Rome's great concert hall, was demolished, and for over 60 years the city remained without an auditorium built for music. In 1992 the city council chose the area between the Olympic Village and Flaminio, and in 1993 Renzo Piano won the invitation-only competition.

On April 21, 2002, the birthday of Rome, the Sala Sinopoli and the Sala Petrassi opened, on December 21 of the same year the Sala Santa Cecilia, the hall of the Bollani and Rava concert. Since 2003 the Auditorium has been the home of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia's season, since 2006 it has hosted the Rome Film Festival, and in 2020 it was named for Ennio Morricone. In 2009 Rava directed the Jazz Lab there, every fall the complex hosts the Roma Jazz Festival.

Who has passed through Stefano Bollani and Enrico Rava at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, December 23, 2026

Through the Sala Santa Cecilia have passed the great conductors, beginning with Myung-whun Chung, who inaugurated it in 2002, and through its seasons have passed the guest conductors of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. In the world of jazz, the hall has welcomed over the years the most in-demand names on the international circuit, and the Auditorium itself had Rava as director of the Jazz Lab.

Through the careers of the two protagonists have passed some of the most important musicians of the twentieth century. Alongside Rava: Gato Barbieri, Steve Lacy, Carla Bley, Lee Konitz, Pat Metheny, Michel Petrucciani, Joe Henderson, Paul Motian, Joe Lovano. Alongside Bollani: Chick Corea, Bill Frisell, Caetano Veloso, Egberto Gismonti, Bobby McFerrin, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Chucho Valdés, Richard Galliano, Hamilton de Holanda, and the conductors Riccardo Chailly, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Harding.

On the evening of December 23, three different audiences pass through the Auditorium's foyers: the jazz fans of the Sala Santa Cecilia, the world-music lovers of Indaco in the Teatro Studio, the families of Cartoon Heroes in the Sala Petrassi. It is one of the busiest evenings of the complex's Christmas season.

The neighborhood around the Auditorium

The Auditorium occupies an area of about 55,000 square meters between the hill of Villa Glori, the Olympic Village, the Corso di Francia viaduct, and Viale Maresciallo Pilsudski.

The MAXXI and the Teatro Olimpico

Near the Flaminia/Reni stop is the MAXXI, the national museum of 20-first-century arts, a little farther, on Piazza Gentile da Fabriano, the Teatro Olimpico. Inside the Auditorium, for those who arrive early, is the Musical Instruments Museum of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.

Toward the Tiber

From the Auditorium you walk down to the river and the Ponte della Musica, the footbridge leading to the Foro Italico. Farther north, beyond Piazza Mancini, is Milvian Bridge, the evening meeting point of northern Rome.

Christmas in the city

Those coming to Rome for the concert will find ideas for the holiday days in the guide to Christmas in Rome, with tram 2 you're back in a few minutes at Piazza del Popolo.

Accessibility, age, and practical information

The Auditorium is a modern complex on several levels, with terraces, foyers, and halls. For accessibility needs it's best to write in advance to the Fondazione Musica per Roma, at info@musicaperroma.it, to find out which entrance to use and which seats to choose in the Sala Santa Cecilia.

Parking

The Auditorium's paid parking lots, surface and multilevel, have spaces reserved for people with disabilities.

With teenagers

The duo is not a concert for small children: two hours of acoustic jazz demand attention. For a teenager studying piano or trumpet, however, watching two musicians of this level improvise without a net is a lesson hard to forget. Bollani, with his irony, is also an excellent bridge to jazz for those who know him from television. The rules for minors are those indicated by the Auditorium at the time of purchase.

Where to eat before or after the concert

Inside the Auditorium Parco della Musica there are a bar and a café in the foyers and a bar-restaurant also reachable from the street. In the streets of the Olympic Village, along Via Flaminia, and around Piazza Mancini you find pizzerias, trattorias, and neighborhood bars. For an 8 p.m. concert, dinner beforehand should be set early, around 6:30. Those who prefer to dine afterward find the widest choice at Ponte Milvio, a few minutes away: in Christmas week a reservation is indispensable.

Christmas at the Auditorium

The Bollani and Rava concert falls right in the middle of the complex's Christmas programming. From December 13 to January 1 the Roma Gospel Festival is under way, from December 26 to 30 Max Gazzè performs for five nights. On the same evening of December 23, besides the duo, you can choose Indaco with Indigo Tracks or Cartoon Heroes.

Weather and dress

At the end of December Roman evenings are cool and often damp, and the walk from the tram to the entrance is outdoors. A coat to leave at the coat check and a folding umbrella are advisable.

Frequently asked questions about Bollani and Rava in Rome

When do Bollani and Rava play at the Auditorium Parco della Musica?

Stefano Bollani and Enrico Rava play at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone on Wednesday, December 23, 2026, at 8:00 p.m., in the Sala Santa Cecilia. It is a single date, as part of the Fondazione Musica per Roma's jazz programming.

How much are tickets for Bollani and Rava?

Tickets for the Bollani and Rava concert at the Auditorium start at 35 euros, according to the official event page. They are bought from the Auditorium's website, which links to the authorized presale network, or at the complex's box office at Viale Pietro de Coubertin 30.

What do Bollani and Rava play as a duo?

The duo of Stefano Bollani and Enrico Rava draws on jazz standards, Brazilian music, Italian song, and the two musicians' original pieces. The setlist is not published: a good part of the evening comes from their understanding and improvisation in the moment.

How long have Bollani and Rava been playing together?

Enrico Rava called Stefano Bollani to his side in 1996. Since then the two have given hundreds of concerts and recorded more than 15 albums, from Certi angoli segreti in 1998 to The Third Man and New York Days, released by ECM.

How many seats does the Sala Santa Cecilia have?

The Sala Santa Cecilia is the largest hall of the Auditorium Parco della Musica, with over 2,700 seats. It was inaugurated on December 21, 2002, and its ceiling is formed by 26 shells of American cherry wood that act as an acoustic mirror.

How old is Enrico Rava?

Enrico Rava was born in Trieste on August 20, 1939: at the December 23, 2026, concert at the Auditorium he will be 87. Stefano Bollani was born in Milan on December 5, 1972, and will be 54.

How do you get to the Auditorium Parco della Musica by public transport?

The Auditorium Parco della Musica is reached by Metro A to Flaminio and then tram 2, stops Flaminia/Reni or Apollodoro. From Termini there is bus 910, with no transfers, lines 53, 982, and 168 also pass nearby.

The final tip on Bollani and Rava

A trumpeter of 87 and the pianist he himself discovered 30 years ago, alone on the stage of Rome's largest hall, two days before Christmas: in our view it is the jazz concert of the year in the city, and perhaps one of the last chances to hear this duo in a hall like this. The advice is to listen to The Third Man in the days before, buy tickets early, choose the center orchestra section, and arrive at the Auditorium half an hour early, because the same night the complex hosts two other concerts.

Article written by the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

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