Gloucester-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Roella Oloro is exploring the concept of a perfumer mixing a new scent in music.

Her early musical home was in the Pentecostal Church playing piano in regional gospel choirs around south west England, teaching her to play piano by ear alongside her classical training in piano, clarinet, alto saxophone and bass guitar. Roella became inspired by jazz in her early teens after hearing the virtuosic brilliance of Oscar Peterson.

Roella moved to London in 2017 to study at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Greenwich. Whilst there, she quickly got involved with London’s vibrant scene, performing with bands like the Tomorrow’s Warriors Female Frontline, as well as regularly attending jams at Ronnie Scott’s, The Haggerston, Troy Bar and Steamdown among others.

In 2018, Roella was awarded a full tuition room and board scholarship to take part in the Women’s Performance Programme run by Legendary Jazz Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington at Berklee College of Music’s 5-week summer performance programme in Boston. At the end of the programme she auditioned and was awarded a full tuition scholarship to study at Berklee full-time on their undergraduate course. In September 2019 Roella started studying at Berklee College of music full time in the US.

Over her first year at Berklee she formed part of Terri-Lyne Carrington’s Jazz and Gender Justice Institute. Through this and other Berklee classes Roella was able to meet and study with Jazz legends such as Melissa Aldana Aaron Parks, Dee dee Bridgewater, Joanne Brackeen and most recently Wayne Shorter post lockdown via zoom among others.