2019 : Audience Award at the BMW Welt Award in Munich
2017 - 2018 - 2019 : Elected "Rising Star" in the American magazine "Downbeat"
2013 : Elected young talent ADAMI
2012 : Selected for the European project "Take Five Europe"
2011 : Nominated in the Instrumental Revelation category of the Victoires du Jazz
2009 : Winner of the Rezzo Jazz à Vienne springboard
2007 : Group prize at the National Jazz Competition in La Défense
Born in Belfort on July 23, 1975, from a family of musicians, Céline Bonacina began to study music at the age of seven, following a course of classical studies in various conservatories in Belfort, Besançon then Paris… A l As a teenager, she discovered a growing passion for jazz and improvised music.
During her Parisian years from 1996 to 1998, she specialized in the baritone saxophone by first integrating several big bands.
Developing a soloist game with this instrument naturally becomes a priority.
Holder of the CA of saxophone and DE of jazz, she then left for Reunion Island where she taught at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional for 7 years.
Back in France in 2005, she created Céline Bonacina Trio, a suitable training to diversify formats until today, from the trio + guest (s) up to sixty musicians on stage. (Céline Bonacina Trio & the Megapulse Orchestra)
When recording her second trio album, "Way of Life", she fulfilled one of her dreams: to invite guitarist Nguyên Lê
This album seduces the prestigious German Label ACT on which she will then record another opus "Open Heart", released in 2013.
She then created a more acoustic project, Crystal Rain (on the Cristal Records label) with the collaboration of British pianist Gwilym Simcock, Canadian double bassist Chris Jennings and Israeli drummer Asaf Sirkis.
In her next album, FLY FLY, released on October 18, 2019, she revisits and develops her first qualities with a commitment full of optimism, an irradiating groove tempered by beautiful spiritual reveries, the imprint of exotic colors (and especially the sounds of Reunion Island), and the place given to votes.
They have performed at numerous festivals and jazz clubs in France and abroad: United Kingdom, Syria, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Hungary, New Zealand, Canada ...,
In addition to her stage life, Céline Bonacina leads a diversified educational life by teaching classical and jazz saxophone at CRD d'Alençon. She is regularly asked for master-classes around various themes: Indian Ocean rhythms, bridges between classical and jazz in solo play, etc.)
She collaborates with Nguyên Lê, Andy Sheppard, Lars Danielsson, Michaël Wollny, Nils Landgren, Mino Cinelu, Michel Benita, Didier Levallet, Tineke Postma, Julien Lourau, Bojan Z, Terri Lyne Carrington, Rhoda Scott…
