Daniele Roccato

Daniele Roccato ranks among the foremost double-bass specialists active anywhere in Europe. His work centers on contemporary repertoire, radical explorations of the instrument’s technical limits, and projects that fuse music with theatrical elements.

Born in 1969 in Adria, within the province of Rovigo in northeastern Italy, Roccato took up violin and piano at age seven before turning to double bass under the guidance of Federico Garberoglio. During his student years he performed with several national and regional youth ensembles, among them the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée, and collected prizes in multiple competitions. He later occupied principal positions in Italian orchestras, appearing under conductors that included Carlo Maria Giulini, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Yuri Temirkanov; by the mid-1990s, however, he chose to reduce orchestral commitments in order to concentrate on solo work. Traditional literature nevertheless remains part of his activity, and he has appeared as soloist in concertos and transcriptions with the Stravinsky Chamber Orchestra, La Camerata Musicale, Orchestra da Camera Malipiero, and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Perugia.

Roccato has established several ensembles of his own: the experimental tango formation TrisTango, the trio Afropea combining double bass and live electronics with vibraphone and percussion, and Ludus Gravis, an all-double-bass group that he continues to direct and with which he frequently performs. A sustained partnership with writer, playwright, and actor Vitaliano Trevisan has produced pieces such as Burroughs in Cage and I suicidi di Bernhard, for which Roccato supplies original scores, prepares arrangements for the theatrical ensemble, and takes part as performer. Additional collaborations have linked him with pop musicians Lucio Dalla and Roberto Vecchioni as well as with visual artists.

Recordings by Roccato appear on the Wergo, Stradivarius, and ECM labels. In 2013 he released an album devoted to Sofia Gubaidulina’s works for double bass, prompting the composer to observe that “I’ve never heard a double bass sound this way.” A 2019 ECM disc presented music by his Ludus Gravis colleague Stefano Scodanibbio, followed in 2020 by a Wergo recording focused on the double-bass compositions of Hans Werner Henze. Roccato holds a teaching post at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome and has conducted master classes in the United States, Mexico, and Cuba.