Set List | 'Believe To See', R Oloro, 'Continental Shift', R Oloro, 'Central Park West', J Coltrane, 'Eye of the Hurricane', H Hancock, 'Beatrice', S Rivers, 'Summer's Own', R Oloro, 'I Dream Of', R Oloro, 'Unconditional Love', G Allen, 'One Finger Snap', H Hancock, 'Backyard Groove', K Garrett, 'PNJ', M Miller, 'Drummer's Song', G Allen |
Performance Notes | Roella Oloro performs live as part of EFG London Jazz Festival
A British-born composer and multi-instrumentalist of Nigerian and Jamaican descent, Roella Oloro first moved to London in 2017 to study at Trinity Laban, and quickly got involved with Londons vibrant scene, performing at venues such as Ronnies Scotts and Pizza Express. As a composer, she has written for a variety of different ensembles. One of her first pieces for big band, Cruisin, was played at the Royal Albert Hall in 2016.
In Summer 2018, she was offered a full scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music after attending the schools 5-week Performance Programme. Thanks to a rigorous fundraising campaign and much help from the music education network Tomorrows Warriors, she now attends the school. She recently won the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers prize for Emerging Black Composers. In May 2022, she travelled to Austin, Texas to accept her award and perform with the 17-piece jazz orchestra.
Whilst at Berklee she has received tutelage from exceptional professors such as NEA Jazz masters Terri Lyne Carrington and Joanne Brackeen and Grammy-nominated saxophonist Tia Fuller. This past spring semester, she studied with Esperanza Spalding at Harvard as part of Spaldings Black Improvisational Music and Dance class.
Over the course of the pandemic, Oloro was a BBC Young Musician 2020 semi-finalist, a Jazz South UK grant recipient, appeared on Decca Records, Alone Together Jazz piano album, on British TV as part of Jazz 625, the British Jazz Explosion, and released her first single entitled Sacrificial Lamb. |