Olivia Belli
Fermo, Italy
Ocean Voices
Behind the Music
Olivia BelliThe Outlaw Ocean is a book everyone should read. Many of us think of the sea as an escape, a place of peace, but Ian reveals it can be the opposite. This kind of journalism is vital when raising awareness in our society and, as such, it’s important for us to draw attention to it. Art, and even more directly music, has the ability to arouse emotions and trigger deep reactions to issues such as these. I tried to accomplish this goal in my songs by featuring the voices of individuals, like David George Mndolwa, so they can recount the stories they tell in the book, eliciting a strong sense of empathy from the listener. It’s not enough to explain — people must be shaken by these stories, and art has always played this role.
About Olivia Belli
Olivia Belli is a modern piano performer and composer with numerous accolades to her name, including over nine million Spotify streams. She plays all kinds of pianos and she always manipulates the sound of them. Her modern and new classical is distinguished by the typical Italian equilibrium and grace enriched by subtle and inner melodies.
Her debut full album, “Where Night Never Comes,” was released in October 2018. It found great success atop the Modern Classical Chart on Reverbnation and was awarded the 2018 SoloPiano.com’s Best Album Overall.
In the past three years, Olivia's tracks have been chosen for the Starbucks, Spotify and Digster Official Playlist while others have been broadcasted by BBC Radio 3, BBC 6 Music, Classic FM and Radio France. She has also been featured in Textura.org, Stationary Travel, SonofMarketing and Composer Tool Box, among others.
Her last album, “RIVER PATH,” released in January 2020 by 1631 Recordings with Decca Publishing Distribution, was broadcasted in premiere by BBC 6 Music and KEXP and has been streamed over 20 million times in less than 3 months.
In April 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, Olivia and her husband released the environmentally inspired “MATER” as a tribute to the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. Upcoming projects include the EP “Ocean Voices” in collaboration with the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Ian Urbina based on his bestselling book “The Outlaw Ocean,” and “Moonlight Recomposed,” a tribute to Beethoven’s Anniversary.