Pier Renzo Ponzo was born in Cuneo on 8 August 1960.
He began playing the clarinet at the age of 10 in the marching band of Carrù, a little town between the Alps and the Langhe, where he still lives today.
Graduated in clarinet, he has been active since 1980 as a concert performer, composer and arranger, sound designer, serious and comic musician-actor.
Eclectic multi-instrumentalist, with clarinets, saxophones, recorders, percussion, ethnic instruments, electronic instruments, invented instruments and voice, he ranges across all fields of music, from avant-garde jazz to classical music, from pop to contemporary art music, from rock to ethnic and folk music, from funk to singer-songwriter music.
From 1983 to 2006, he played with Carlo Actis Dato, in his quartet, known worldwide and considered by international critics to be one of the most entertaining and original group of new Italian jazz.
From 1991 to 2011, he collaborated with Gianmaria Testa, for whom he arranged and directed the albums Montgolfiéres and Altre latitudini, and played in hundreds of concerts.
Since 1992, he has been on a “never-ending tour” with the musical cabaret group Trelilu (together with Roberto Bella, Francesco Bertone, and Roberto Beccaria who replaced in 2013 the former singer Filippo Bessone).
Between 1991 and 1996, as part of Emanuele Ruffinengo’s team, he created advertising campaigns and jingles for some of major italian radio networks (105 Network, Radio MonteCarlo) and arranged various Italian pop music productions.
In 2023, he created numerous jingles for FCE-Continuo Webradio in Luxembourg.
From 2000 to 2005, he was the creator of the following groups: Electrifié Duo, with Federico Marchesano;
Loop Killers, a trio with Federico Marchesano and Eríc Groleau;
Piero Ponzo & Colleagues, with Roberto Taufic, Filippo Gambetta, Federico Marchesano, Gilson Silveira, and Riccardo Serra;
Black sun & other paintings, a duo with Simona Colonna.
In 2001, he toured with L’isola sconosciuta, together with Riccardo Tesi, Gianmaria Testa, Carla Signoris, and Giuseppe Cederna, based on the story by José Saramago and directed by Giorgio Gallione.
In 2002, he created Raccontarsuonando, with his compositions for tentet (clarinet, diatonic accordion, double bass, guitar, percussion, drums, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, didgeridoo, trombone) based on tales by Carlo Lucarelli, Marco Lodoli, Marco Revelli, Gianni Mura, Gianmaria Testa, Marco Neirotti and Marco Vacchetti.
In 2004, he toured with Rossintesta, together with Paolo Rossi, Gianmaria Testa, Emanuele Dell’Aquila and Enzo Pietropaoli.
From 2001 to 2009, he toured with Guarda che Luna, together with Enrico Rava, Stefano Bollani, Gianmaria Testa, Banda Osiris and Enzo Pietropaoli, directed by Giorgio Gallione.
From 2013 to 2020, he collaborated with singer-songwriter Giovanni Ruffino, releasing the duo albums Barche, libellule e altri frutti esotici and Brassens in piemontese, the trio album Senza fili with Valeria Quarta, and the album 95% Brassens with VieTraverse.
In 2009, he created the performance Polifonie informali on iron sculptures by architect Enzo Mastrangelo. He also collaborated with Enzo Mastrangelo on the art performance Time Identity at the Mole Antonelliana in 2011 and in 2025 at the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena and the Sineo Tower in Alba.
Between 2019 and 2023, he composed and performed solo concerts for clarinet and electronic sources for Les Concerts du Foyer Europeen in Luxembourg: Concerto per il mondo che verrà; Postcards from the future; L’histoire des histoires (14 chants postmodernes); Simplicity.
Since 2013, he has composed the music for thirteen different theatre productions by the Luxembourg company Teatrolingua, directed by Luisella Piccoli Suberni.
In 2013, he composed the music for Geronimo Carbonò’s movie Hobohemia; in 2015, he participated in the music for Diego Scarponi’s movie Alfabeto Camallo.
In 2022, he composed the music for Fabio Bottani’s movie L’arrivée de la Jeunesse and part of the music for Sandro Bozzolo’s movie Innesti.
He is featured as a sideman, as a soloist, as arranger or composer on over seventy recordings, and has composed chamber music, electro-acoustic music, music for bands, dance, theatre and video, educational music, exhibition music and pop songs.
He has also collaborated with Philippe Val, Atipico Trio, Actis Furioso, Andrea Centazzo’s Mitteleuropa Orchestra, Nexus Orchestra, Gianluigi Trovesi, Pino Minafra, Elena Roggero, Caesar Stroscio, Emanuel Binet, David Lewis, Philippe Garcia, Barbara Borra and numerous other musicians, actors, mimes, painters and writers.
He has been invited at prestigious festivals, clubs, radio and television broadcasts in Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Spain, Martinique, Canada, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States.
He has performed in: Addis Ababa, Athens, Belgrade, Berlin, Bern, Brussels, The Hague, Helsinki, Ljubljana, Madrid, Ottawa, Paris, Rabat, Rome, Stockholm, Tokyo, Tunis, Vienna, Vilnius, Wellington and Aix-en-Provence, Amiens, Amsterdam, Angers, Antwerp, Aosta, Asti, Auckland, Avignon, Barcelona, Bari, Basel, Berchidda, Bergamo, Besançon, Blois, Bologna, Bolzano, Bonn, Bourges, Bordeaux, Bremen, Brescia, Brest, Bruges, Cagliari, Calgari, Cape Town, Casablanca, Chicago, Clermont-Ferrand, Cologne, Cuneo, Darmstadt, Dortmund, Dresden, Durban, Dusseldorf, Edmonton, Ferrara, Florence, Forte dei Marmi, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Fukui, Genoa, Ghent, Gibellina, Geneva, Graz, Grenoble, Groningen, Hamburg, Hamilton, Hanover, Heidelberg, Iglesias, Innsbruck, Jena, Karlsruhe, Kaunas, Kragujevac, Lamentin, Le Mans, Liège, Leipzig, Los Angeles, Lucca, Luxembourg, Lucerne, Lyon, Mantua, Marseille, Melbourne, Metz, Milan, Modena, Montpellier, Montreal, Munich, Mulhouse, Munster, Nagoya, Nantes, Naples, Neuchatel, Nevers, New York, Nimes, Noci, Nuremberg, Noto, Novara, Novi Sad, Orleans, Oulu, Palermo, Parma, Patras, Perpignan, Perugia, Pisa, Potsdam, Quebec City, Ragusa, Rennes, Regensburg, Rotterdam, Rouen, Salzburg, Santander, S.Anna Arresi, Sassari, Savona, Siena, Syracuse, Seville, Stuttgart, Strasbourg, Sydney, Tabarka, Taranto, Turin, Tortona, Toronto, Toulouse, Tours, Trento, Turku, Utrecht, Ulm, Valence, Venice, Verona, Vicenza, Wuppertal, Yokohama, Zurich, Zwolle, and in dozens of other centres.
In 2011, he published the book of short stories Il plurale di due e altri racconti surreali.