The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a Music Production Grant to Nicola Caminiti for his original ensemble project, Side Quest.

The concept behind Side Quest stems from an inquiry into the diverse musical currents that shape an artist’s voice outside their primary stylistic path. Throughout a musician's evolution, there are genres discovered at pivotal moments, transformative albums, and sonic textures that leave lasting impressions even when career trajectories head in other directions. While often viewed as secondary diversions, these "side quests" frequently play a defining role in artistic development.

With Side Quest, Caminiti places those eclectic influences at the forefront, crafting a nuanced fusion of jazz, metal, and contemporary classical music. Drawing inspiration from visionary artists across genres—such as Weather Report, Miguel Zenón, Tigran Hamasyan, Allan Holdsworth, Meshuggah, Car Bomb, and Linkin Park—the project seeks an organic intersection among divergent traditions of rhythm, harmony, architectural form, sound design, and improvisation. The repertoire features Caminiti’s original compositions, alternating between structured forms and open improvisational spaces where individual member character and collective interplay define the ensemble sound.

Nicola Caminiti is a New York-based Italian saxophonist, composer, and arranger whose music draws from a deep sense of tradition while embracing intensely creative modern concepts rooted in interplay and rhythmic exploration. Praised as “one to watch” by Jazzwise UK, he has emerged as one of the distinctive musical voices of his generation.

Caminiti is a Latin Grammy-nominated artist, recipient of the 2024 Jazz Gallery Commission Residency, and winner of the 2023 Herb Alpert ASCAP Jazz Composer Competition and the 2018 North American Saxophone Alliance Jazz Competition. DownBeat named him a Rising Star Soprano Saxophonist in 2024 and 2025, and a Rising Star Alto Saxophonist in 2025. His debut album, Vivid Tales of a Blurry Self-Portrait, received a four-star review and was chosen as an Editor’s Pick by DownBeat, with critics praising his veteran confidence, storytelling, and intricate compositional palette.

As both a bandleader and sideman, Caminiti has toured across the United States, Europe, and Asia, performing at venues and festivals including Blue Note, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, The Jazz Gallery, Black Cat, Rochester Jazz Festival, Fillmore Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival, and the Ibiza Jazz Festival. He has shared the stage and recorded with prominent artists such as Pedrito Martinez, Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Knower, Kinga Głyk, Makoto Ozone, Dayna Stephens, Harish Raghavan, and Shai Maestro.

Please visit Angélica’s Website and Instagram for more information.