Sicilian-born vocalist and songwriter Laura Campisi has made New York City her home since 2011. Rooted in jazz but instinctively drawn to crossing musical and cultural borders, she has developed an eclectic repertoire that moves between jazz, Italian and Sicilian music, folk traditions, original songwriting and unexpected reinterpretations of familiar songs, drawing freely from genres including pop, rock and electronic music. She has performed throughout Europe, the United States and Canada, in settings ranging from intimate duos to larger ensembles, festivals and theatrical performance.

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Language has always been central to Campisi’s musical world — not simply as a means of communication, but as sound, rhythm, identity and cultural expression. A native Italian speaker, she writes songs in English, Italian and Sicilian and has performed in English, Italian, Sicilian, Neapolitan, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Punjabi. Her musical curiosity has also led her beyond Western traditions, including collaborations with Pakistani musicians and performances of Sufi and Punjabi repertoire. Throughout these encounters, jazz and improvisation have remained a common language: a place where different traditions can meet without losing their identity.

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Campisi studied music in her native Palermo, graduating summa cum laude in Musical Arts. Her thesis explored the life and work of legendary Sicilian folk singer Rosa Balistreri and the relationship between music, land and social protest — themes that have continued to surface throughout her artistic life. Her musical education has included jazz, improvisation, songwriting and vocal studies with artists and educators in Italy and the United States.

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After moving to New York, Campisi continued to develop a musical language shaped by both her Mediterranean roots and her adopted city's rich cultural diversity and longstanding traditions of musical creativity and experimentation. She has performed at venues including Birdland, Lincoln Center, The Kitano and New York University, while continuing to work internationally. In 2017 she released her debut album, Double Mirror, recorded with an unconventional double-trio lineup featuring two bassists, two drummers and voice. The album received international critical attention for its distinctive instrumentation and personal approach to jazz and songwriting, including coverage in DownBeat and inclusion among the year’s notable releases by Cadence and All About Jazz. In 2018 she appeared as one of the principal performers in Toronto’s The Ward Cabaret, portraying an Italian immigrant in early twentieth-century Canada.

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