Monica Nica Agosti

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Singer, composer, improviser. Her research moves between sonic range and potential of the voice, jazz, songwriting, and free improvisation.
Monica ‘Nica’ Agosti started to take singing lessons with private teachers as a teenager and immediately experimented with different musical genres by playing in rock, soul, jazz bands, as well as in musicals and lounge music gigs.
While studying Digital Communication in Milan she took singing lessons with Paola Folli and later joined the jazz singing class of the “Milestone School of Music” in Piacenza, taught by Betty Quartieri, Paola Quagliata and Debora Lombardo. Since 2008 she has been performing with local musicians including Renato Podestà, Mauro Sereno, Roberto Lupo, Giovanni Guerretti, Paolo Badiini, Gianni Satta, Alex Carreri, Mario Zara, Erminio Cella, Tito Mangialajo Rantzer and Alessandro Cassani.
Her determination to learn more about jazz grew over time and she decided to take part in numerous seminars, including “Nuoro Jazz” and the “Siena Jazz Summer Workshop“, with national and international teachers such as Steve Lehman, Sheila Jordan, Tiziana Ghiglioni, John Taylor, Joe Sanders, Nir Felder, Franco d’Andrea, Theo Bleckmann, Jen Shyu, Cristina Zavalloni, Darmon Meader, Rosana Eckert, Maria Pia De Vito, and Diana Torto.
In 2014 she was a finalist in the “Chicco Bettinardi” National Competition.
In 2015 she was the lead singer of her trio with Mario Zara (piano) and Alex Carreri (electric bass), with whom she explored an Ecm sound repertoire. In 2016, her NicaSphere project with Gianni Satta (trumpet), Giovanni Guerretti (Hammond organ) and Oberdan Galvani (drums) was a tribute to 1950/60s jazz. Her projects were featured in several events and festivals including “Summertime in Jazz”, “Soresina Jazz Fest” and “Piacenza Suona Jazz”.
Also in 2015, she opened a concert during the prestigious Siena Jazz International Summer Workshop with the SJU Orchestra conducted by Maestro Roberto Spadoni with guests Fulvio Sigurtà and Achille Succi.
In 2019 she graduated in Jazz Singing from Siena Jazz University, where she studied with Claudia Pantalone, Diana Torto, Giovanni Falzone, Alessandro Giachero, Marco Tamburini, Silvia Bolognesi, Maurizio Giammarco, Stefano Zenni, Francesco Martinelli, Roberto Rossi, Walter Paoli, Tomaso Lama, Tony Cattano, Roberto Spadoni and Achille Succi, among others. She joined masterclasses held by leading international jazz artists including Tim Berne, Steve Lehman, Michael Blake and John Taylor, and presented a research thesis on saxophonist Ornette Coleman.
In 2020 she joined the two-year specialization in Jazz Singing at Siena Jazz University, with teachers including Seamus Blake, Ziv Ravitz, Diana Torto, David Linx, Greg Burk, Nico Gori, Logan Richardson, Jeff Ballard, Ferenc Nemeth, Jim Black and Jesse Davis.
Throughout her academic career, she also studied in Siena with Stefano Battaglia, with whom she undertook a long journey of musical research concerning a-idiomatic improvisation.
In October 2021 she presented Ornettiana as a preview for the Piacenza Jazz Fest, her new project for pianoless quintet ShapeX Ensemble composed by Tobia Bondesan (alto sax), Tommaso Iacoviello (trumpet), Francesco Sarrini (double bass), Giuseppe Sardina (drums), largely characterized by improvised music and combining original lyrics and songs with pieces by Ornette Coleman. This album was recorded in Arezzo, at Francesco Ponticelli’s Cicaleto Recording Studio.
In 2022 she is also co-author of an editorial project for the promotion and dissemination of jazz music for the Zecchini Editore publishing house.