Born in 1958 in Varese, Italy, double bass player and composer STEFANO DALL'ORA has had an intense career as a performer and recording artist covering the spectrum from jazz to classical music. He graduated in 1982 with full marks from the prestigious Conservatorio "Giuseppe Verdi" in Milan under the guidance of Giuseppe Russotto, and later studied with Franco Petracchi in Fiesole, Italy.
Besides usual collaborations with many Italian jazz players (Franco Cerri, Emanuele Cisi, Mauro Negri, to name a few), he has played with Lee Konitz, Eric Marienthal, Astor Piazzolla, Stefano Bollani, Mal Waldron, Rick Margitza, Dusko Goikovich, Richard Galliano.
He has collaborated as First Double Bass with a number of symphonic and chamber orchestras such as the Orchestra da Camera di Brescia, Orchestra Sinfonica Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, Orchestra del Festival di Brescia e Bergamo, Filarmonica della Scala. He has travelled to many countries all over the world playing with esteemed soloists as Mstislav Rostropovic, Nikita Magaloff, Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Gidon Kremer, Alexander Lonquich, Krystian Zimerman, among others.
Stefano Dall’Ora performed twice, in 2004 and 2005, with Origines Trio (voice, classical guitar and double bass) at the world renown Carnegie Hall in New York City.
He has recorded with Jan Garbarek (in “Massical” by T. Gurtu, 2009), Eric Marienthal, Alex Acuña, Stefano Bollani, Gabriele Mirabassi, Dado Moroni, Michael Rosen.
In a more pop-oriented context, he has performed and/or recorded with Italian artists Ludovico Einaudi, Antonella Ruggiero, Vasco Rossi, Renato Zero.
In 2010, with singer Nadia Braito and percussionist Francesco D'Auria he founded ThreeSpirits trio. Their first CD, "Blue Chorale", has been published in 2013.
He has been a member of Arkè String Quartet until 2016; with them and the famed Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu (Oregon, Joe Zawinul) in 2007 he recorded the CD “Arkeology”, which was voted as one of the best World Music recordings of the year by several European music magazines such as “Jazz Hot” (F), “World Music Magazine” (I), “Batterie” (F), “Songlines” (UK). Also worth mentioning is their appearance in January 2009 on a special number of "Che tempo che fa", a popular program on national Italian Television Broadcasting Company RAI, dedicated to the great Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio De Andrè.
Since 2001 he has been teaching double bass at Conservatorio “Giuseppe Verdi” in Como.