Marco Sollazzo is an Italian composer and multi-instrumentalist whose music lives between ancient and contemporary worlds, silence and intensity, acoustic and electric landscapes, transforming different musical memories into a distinctive personal language.
Born in Naples, Italian composer and multi-instrumentalist Marco Sollazzo grew up surrounded by Neapolitan songs, Italian opera and rock music. He studied double bass, jazz and composition at the Conservatory of Parma, developing a strong foundation in melody, structure and improvisation.
His musical journey then took him to Türkiye, where he spent a decade immersing himself in the country's musical traditions and culture. He learned Turkish, lived among local communities and studied makam — not simply as a musical system, but as a deeper way of understanding music, its emotional language and its inner states.
The oud became much more than an instrument. It became a voice connecting him to a place, a culture and, perhaps unexpectedly, to his own roots. As Marco recalls: "I felt an immediate connection with the oud, almost as if I had been chosen by the instrument rather than choosing it myself. The sound felt deeply familiar to me — almost like a missing voice from my own roots."
After an earthquake uprooted his life in Türkiye, Marco relocated to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he turned to his beloved oud and transformed his experiences into musical artistry. He continued developing his compositional voice and completed an MA in Music with Distinction at Edinburgh Napier University.
Drawing on his Mediterranean background and wide-ranging musical experiences, he brings together modal influences, contemporary composition and improvisation. His music explores memory, displacement and belonging, moving between acoustic and electric textures, intimacy and intensity, silence and energy.
Rooted in the Mediterranean but restless in exploration, his sound brings ancient echoes into dialogue with contemporary energy.
Having found his instrument and spent years discovering its language, Marco now uses the oud to shape a musical language of his own — one that reflects his experiences, encounters and personal journey.
