At the 2026 Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes (CIA) Winter Congress in Italy was approved the CIA Merit Award for Simone Zanchini – Italy, nominated by the Italian Accordion Culture (IAC) Italy.
The official citation from Italy includes:
Simone Zanchini is one of the most interesting and innovative accordionists on the international scene, his research moves through the boundaries of contemporary music, acoustics and electronics, sound experimentation, and cultivated contamination without forgetting tradition, thus resulting in a very personal approach to improvisation.
He graduated with honours in classical accordion at the “G. Rossini” Conservatory of Pesaro, under Maestro Sergio Scappini. An eclectic instrumentalist, he has intense concert activities with groups of different musical extractions (improvisation, contemporary music, jazz, and classical).
He has played in major festivals and shows in Italy (Clusone Jazz, Umbria Jazz, Tivoli Jazz, Time in Jazz – Berchidda, Sant’Anna Arresi, Barga Jazz, Mara Jazz, Jazz in’it – Vignola, Ravenna Festival, Rossini Opera Festival, Siena Jazz, Rumori Mediterranei – Roccella Jonica) and in the most important international festivals (France, Austria, Germany, England, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Spain, Norway, Russia, Tunisia, Lebanon, India, Venezuela, USA, and Japan).
He collaborates with many internationally renowned musicians of different backgrounds: Thomas Clausen, Gianluigi Trovesi, Javier Girotto, Marco Tamburini, Massimo Manzi, Tamara Obrovac, Vasko Atanasovski, Paolo Fresu, Antonello Salis, Han Bennink, Art Van Damme, Bruno Tommaso, Ettore Fioravanti, Mario Marzi, Michele Rabbia, Andrea Dulbecco, Giovanni Tommaso, Gabriele Mirabassi, Frank Marocco, Bill Evans, Adam Nussbaum, Jim Black and John Patitucci.
The Merit Award will be presented to Simone Zanchini at the 2026 Coupe Mondiale in Kazakhstan.
