Born In southern Italy in a small city called Terracina, Ilario has manifested a musical vocation since his early years. Though his grandfather was a reputed song-writer, Ilario never had the chance to meet him and grew up in a "non musical" family. He started formal music education as a teenager under the guidance of Andrea Renzelli for guitar, whilst also teaching himself piano and composition. He gained significant experience in local bands before moving to Rome to work at alongside sound engineer and lyricist Giovanni Leo at "Studio Mobile" recording studios in Rome for five years.
During this period, Ilario composed/arranged a great variety of music projects from orchestral works to pop/rock productions. Some of these pieces have been performed in various festivals and concerts throughout Europe. In 2010 his song Sto Aspettando won the "Audience Award" at the Pirogovsky Ravssett Festival in Moscow.
After completing his engineering studies, Ilario attended the Licino Refice Conservatory, gaining a First Class Degree with Honours Jazz Piano in 2015. During those years, he had the chance to study piano and composition under the guidance of outstanding musicians including Daniele Bravi, Roberto Spadoni, Greg Burke, Marco Tiso and Paolo Tombolesi.
Immediately after Graduation Ilario won an EU scholarship called "Working With Music". Accordingly, he moved to London to work as pianist and composer at Quadra Recording Studio for seven months. At the studios he arranged for a variety of ensembles including for string players from the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 2016, as a band leader/composer, he released "Spread" an album of songs for modern Pop/Funk ensemble and led two music tours in Sicily in 2015/16.
In recent years mentoring and support on compositions hasbeen provided by the German composer Maria Baptist and Ilario’s friend and composer Enrico Olivanti
Alongside his commitments as a pianist and composer, Ilario is also a keen music educator. He started teaching piano and music theory in Colours in Music, a private music school in Watford in November 2015. He gained a PGCE and QTS with merit in Secondary Education at Hertfordshire University and worked for approximately 3 years in Kings Langley Secondary School as both a Music and Maths teacher. He delivered GCSE and A-level composition classes and also developed the school jazz orchestra, culminating in tour in 2019 in Germany, which brought 31 young musicians to perform in 3 successful concerts around the country.
Over the past years Ilario’s style has developed towards integrating classical oriented compositions, contemporary Jazz and sounds and rhythms of the Indian and Mediterranean culture . "Awakening”, a piece for small symphonic orchestra, was a first step in this direction. The piece was premiered in 2019 by the Letchworth Sinfonia conducted by RowanBaker.
In the last couple of years Ilario has intensively focussed on his new trio, composing coproducing and performing“Childhood Memories”his debut album along side Charlie Pyne (double bass) and Katie Patterson (drums). Their album is now receiving enthusiastic feedback around the world. It has been nominated“One of the best jazz albums in 2021”by the Russian Jazz magazine Jazzists. It has been streamed and play-listed in radios in US, Germany, UK, Russia, Japan, Brazil, France, Poland, Spain, and Italy.
The trio is also collaborating with various artists of the London/Europe Jazz scene including Cuban Violinist Omar Puente and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.
Ilario has recently composed two suites for Piano Quintet, BeYourself 1 and 2. The project will be released as an album in spring 2023 and followed by a tour in UK and Europe.
