Featured Artist

Giovanni Hoffer

Giovanni Hoffer ranks as one of the best and most innovative horn players in Italy. Over the course of his classical career, he has worked with conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, and Georges Pretre and with a variety of players and ensembles, such as Giorgio Strehler and the ensembles of contemporary music Sentieri Selvaggi and Divertimento Ensemble, performing works by Franco Donatoni, Michael Nyman and Ludovico Einaudi.

As a jazz artist, Hoffer has developed a unique tonal language, technique, and improvisational method while retaining the horn’s warm smooth tone. His Jazz and Pop stylings have led to performances at Umbria Jazz, Roma Jazz Festival, and Ancona Jazz and to collaborations with artists such as Quincy Jones, Wayne Shorter, Bill Frisell, Paolo Fresu, Terenche Blanchard, Kenny Wheeler, Francesco Cafiso, Ethan Iverson, Lewis Nash, Maynard Ferguson, Paolo Silvestri e Xavier Girotto, Vasco Rossi, Francesco Renga, Niccolò Fabi, and Pacifico. He is a member of the Lydian Sound Orchestra.

Hoffer has several creative jazz projects, resulting in five productions. LatInside (2006), his first album produced by Jazz Daily, features him with his quartet. Hofferquatro, calling attention to Italy's most interesting young jazz musicians performing standards and original works arranged by Hoffer and inspired by the diversity of Latin American rhythms. Echi (2018) for Horn and String Quintet presents music by composer Giuseppe Ricotta, produced by the Gamma Musica label. In the same year, he released I Love You Porgy with pianist Alessandro Altarocca under the Notami Jazz label. His latest project Julius Rides Again (2021) finds Hoffer collaborating with Pau Molto Biosca on an album celebrating Julius Watkins’ 100th birthday.

Hoffer has taught and performed at the International Jazz and Latin Music Seminar in Valencia Spain since 2010. His publication The Modern Hornist (2009) is the first jazz method fully dedicated to the Horn and is much appreciated and well known by hornists worldwide. He teaches in Bologna, Reggio Emilia, and Rovigo. He is a regularly invited teacher and performer at Italian Brass Week, Festival Cornistico Dell’Etna, and Accademia Mediterranea del Corno.