Updated: December 19, 2025
Eduardo Elia is a pianist from Córdoba, Argentina. He began his musical studies in Córdoba, continued in Buenos Aires, and later studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston. This formative path has led to a body of work that currently includes ten albums.
On Blue Art Records (Rosario, Argentina), his releases include Callado, El yang y el yang, We See, Figuras de un solo trazo, Solo, Cuando sea necesario, and Lejos del torbellino.
On 577 Records (New York, USA), he has released The Art of Not Falling: Improvisations on Schoenberg’s Op. 19 Piano Pieces—which earned him “Pianist of the Year” in a poll conducted by the jazz website El Intruso—as well as Una pregunta, tres respuestas and Desvíos (2025).
Elia has performed extensively at venues and festivals throughout Argentina and Latin America, leading his own projects in both ensemble and solo piano formats. He has also collaborated with internationally recognized artists such as Donald Harrison, Darmon Meader (New York Voices), Horacio Fumero, and David Xirgu (Barcelona), among others.
Alongside his artistic career, Elia has maintained a long-standing commitment to music education. Since 2002, he has taught in the Bachelor’s Degree program in Musical Composition with a focus on Popular Music at the Universidad Nacional de Villa María, where he currently serves as Director.
As a researcher, he has presented papers at conferences throughout Argentina and Latin America, sharing his work on topics including popular music education, composition in improvised music, and the historical development of improvisation in jazz.
Awards
2021 "Pianist of the Year" in the survey made by the website specialized in jazz "El Intruso“.
2019 "Album of the Year" in the survey made by the website specialized in jazz "El Intruso“ for "Cuando sea Necesario".
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All About Jazz Articles
Eduardo Elia: Una pregunta, tres respuestas
by Mike Jurkovic
With its dramatic undertow and harmonic tension, “Sobreviviente" steps from the plane into the deep blue sky, free falling from a high dive. It sets the head up very nicely for the hypnotic, human interplay and conceptual artistry that is Una Pregunta, Tres Respuestas, Argentinian pianist Eduardo Elia's latest pursuit into the unchartered. On Una Pregunta, Tres Respuestas (One Question Three Answers) Elia again cross examines the line dividing composition through improvisation and vice versa. It is an ...
Continue ReadingElia / Dominguez /Verdinelli: Cuando Sea Necesario
by Dan McClenaghan
Argentine pianist Eduardo Elia explored the classic jazz tunes on his 2015 release, Solo (Blue Art Records), making the familiar distinctively his own. He shifts gears for Cuando Sea Necesario, bringing on board saxophonist Rodrigo Dominguez and drummer Sergio Verdinelli, for what sounds like a set of loosely-constructed compositions which leave plenty of room for inspired group improvisations that dig deep into making in-the-moment sounds of the highest order. Two thoughts come to mind on an initial spin ...
Continue ReadingEduardo Elia: Solo
by Dan McClenaghan
Argentinian pianist Eduardo Elia, based now in his homeland, attended Berkelee College of Music in Boston. He has a handful of CD releases as a leader, and beyond that, information on the artist is hard to find. His internet profile is sketchy. So the review is all about the music, and maybe that's how it should be... Solo is Elia's sit down at the piano alone offering, in which he mines mostly 1960s jazz tunes, with ...
Continue Reading"Elia again cross examines the line dividing composition through improvisation" (Mike Jurkovic - All About Jazz)
"A vital and original avant perspective of a first rate pianist". (Dan McClenaghan - All About Jazz)
"Unfiltered passion, playful spontaneity, a sense of profound mystery and expressive freedom". (BestofJazz.org)
