Marco Santilli’s CheRoba & il Fiato delle Alpi

A musical daydream in the warmth of a Swiss parlour

Commissioned by the International Alpentöne Festival, La Stüa is a suite of compositions inspired by daydreams and childhood memories in the “stüa” — the warm, wood-panelled living room of traditional homes in the Leventina Valley. The young Marco Santilli, helping his grandfather explain museum exhibits to tourists, already showed an early flair for storytelling — a thread he now carries through his music.

Rooted in jazz yet infused with classical, folk, and world influences, the music of La Stüa defies easy categorization. The melodies, rhythms, and timbres echo the musicality of Santilli’s native Italian language, blending composed and improvised elements into a unique and personal sound world.

For this project, Santilli expanded his quartet CheRoba by inviting il Fiato delle Alpi — a wind ensemble with a rich low-register palette. The addition of alto flute, English horn, bassoon, French horn, and contrabass clarinet creates an ensemble of rare warmth and resonance.

La Stüa is possibly the first time a jazz quartet has been combined with a classical wind quintet in such a deeply integrated way. The result is what Santilli calls (CH)ontaminato: Swiss-flavoured, genre-blending chamber jazz — music born in the Alps, shaped by stories, and carried by breath.

Marco Santilli clarinet • bass clarinet • compositions
Lorenzo Frizzera classical guitar • acoustic guitar • 12-string guitar
Ivan Tibolla piano • accordion • flute
Fulvio Maras percussion • drums
Isabell Weymann flute • alto flute • piccolo
Davide Jäger English horn • oboe
Tomas Gallart French horn
Alessandro Damele bassoon
Filipa Nunes contrabass clarinet