Nicola Segatta has been described as a Renaissance artist: composer, cellist, luthier, polyglot author and organiser. In the woods of Lake S.Colomba, in the mountains of Trentino, he creates music from wood to score. He alternates between an international career as a composer and concert artist and cello making, the spark of inspiration and engine of his musical creativity.
In 2005 he graduated in violin making from the I. P. I. A. L. L. Antonio Stradivari in Cremona, where he was awarded the Ferraroni scholarship as the best student of the year. He deepened his knowledge of construction techniques in various Cremonese workshops, in particular that of Giuseppe Arrè. Since then, alongside his musical activity, he has devoted himself to cello making,
A passionate communicator, he collaborated from 2006 to 2012 with the Stradivari Foundation as a researcher and guide and from 2010 to the present with the Paneveggio Pale di S. Martino Park, home to the most famous spruce tonewood forest in the Dolomites, for the promotion of violin making.
In 2020, one of his cellos won the I Suoni del Legno competition of the Società Filarmonica in Trento, becoming part of a contemporary string quintet, that this historical concert society, founded in 1795, makes available to young talents.
Nicola Segatta has worked with musicians of the calibre of Roby Lakatos, Geoff Westley, Avi Avital and the Ensemble Between Worlds, Collegium Musicale Estonia, Giovanni Sollima (for whom he built a 5-string baroque cello in collaboration with Hrachya Galstian,). His works have been performed in prestigious venues such as the Phoenix Hall in Osaka, the Konzerthaus in Vienna and, for a Deutsche Grammophon production, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. As an assistant to the American artist Tim Linhart, he built and played an ice cello in an igloo on Presena Glacier at 2700 m asl. as leader of the Parad-ice Orchestra
Nicola plays a cello made with his own hands. You can explore his music to discover the sound of his instruments.
Photo © Simone Cargnoni
