Debut album ‘Transcendence’ - coming soon!

In April 2025, Damiano recorded his debut album with the Metropole Orkest conducted by Jochen Neuffer and co-produced by Miho Hazama, featuring guest soloists Ben Wendel (tenor sax, FX), Aaron Parks (piano, synth) and Anna Serierse (vocals). The album (release date TBA) includes seven original compositions and will be premiered live with the Metropole Orkest upon its release.

“Damiano is one of the most interesting up and coming composers on the scene today... writing from the heart.” Bob Mintzer 

“It’s ambitious, it’s bold and it’s modern. And it’s music that needs to be listened to.” Jules Buckley 

In this new work, Damiano explores new orchestral possibilities within the contemporary jazz idiom, blending texture-based orchestration, minimalist patterns and atmospheric soundscapes with the harmonic and melodic sophistication of composers such as Vince Mendoza and Maria Schneider. Drawing from his collaborations with the Metropole Orkest and world-renowned artists, he expands the orchestra’s sonic palette while refining his own voice as a composer. The unique musical voices of Ben Wendel and Aaron Parks shape the improvisational side of the music. Damiano draws inspiration from their playing, exploring ways to connect their language with his own compositional approach.

The voice of Anna Serierse is used as an instrumental colour within the orchestra, blending with strings, woodwinds, harp and percussion to create new and surprising textural combinations.

Production-wise, this album presents a hybrid and forward-thinking approach to orchestral recordings, using effects rarely heard in this setting to process acoustic instruments and create a fresh, distinctive sound.

Damiano has been praised for the lyricism of his writing, the ability to tell compelling stories through music and his “contemporary approach to composing and arranging within an idiom rich in tradition” (jury report Rogier van Otterloo Award 2019).