Giovanni Sollima is an internationally renowned cellist and the most performed Italian composer in the world. He collaborates with the likes of Riccardo Muti, Yo-Yo Ma, Ivan Fischer, Viktoria Mullova, Ruggero Raimondi, Mario Brunello, Kathryn Stott, Giuseppe Andaloro, Yuri Bashmet, Katia and Marielle Labeque, Giovanni Antonini, Ottavio Dantone, Patti Smith, Stefano Bollani, Paolo Fresu, Elisa and Antonio Albanese and with orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Moscow Soloists, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Il Giardino Armonico, Cappella Neapolitana, Accademia Bizantina, Budapest Festival Orchestra.

For film, theater, television, and dance he has written and performed music for Peter Greenaway, John Turturro, Bob Wilson, Carlos Saura, Marco Tullio Giordana, Alessandro Baricco, Peter Stein, Lasse Gjertsen, Anatolij Vasiliev, Karole Armitage, and Carolyn Carlson. He has performed in some of the most important halls around the world, including Alice Tully Hall, Knitting Factory, Carnegie Hall (New York), Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Salle Gaveau (Paris), Teatro alla Scala (Milan), Ravenna Festival, Opera House (Sydney), and Suntory Hall (Tokyo).

Since 2010 Sollima has taught at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where he was awarded the title of Academician. In 2012 he founded, together with Enrico Melozzi, the 100 Cellos. In 2015 he created the Expo "sound logo" in Milan and inaugurated the new museum space of Michelangelo's Pietà Rondanini. In the field of composition he explores different genres making use of ancient, oriental, electric instruments and of his own invention, playing in the Sahara Desert, underwater, or with an ice cello.

During 2020, due to the worldwide pandemic of Covid-19, Giovanni Sollima's concert activities, for well-known reasons, slowed down considerably. In the summer and fall months, however, he was able to appear for such renowned festivals as Classiche Forme in Lecce, MiTo Settembre Musica in Milan and Turin, Mittelfest in Cividale del Friuli, and for the Scarlatti Association in Naples. Over the past year Giovanni Sollima has also been able to intensify his activity in the field of composition, having received several commissions, including, for example, "The Jungle Book," premiered in Kiel in the fall of 2020.

His discography opened in 1998 with a CD commissioned by Philip Glass for his own Point Music label, which was followed by numerous albums for Sony, Egea and Decca. Giovanni Sollima has revived an eighteenth-century cellist/composer, Giovanni Battista Costanzi, whose Sonatas and Symphonies for cello and basso continuo he has recorded over the past few years for the Spanish label Glossa. In October 2018, at the Cello Biennale in Amsterdam, he received the highly prestigious Anner Bijlsma Award. In early 2021 he recorded J.S. Bach's Six Suites, symbolizing a return to the essence of music. This recording is distributed starting in September 2021.

Giovanni Sollima plays a cello Francesco Ruggeri (Cremona, 1679)

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