Federica Cerizza is a Milan-based pianist and composer who came to jazz from the classical conservatory. She hails from the province of Milan and studied at the Conservatorio "Guido Cantelli" in Novara, graduating with the highest marks under Alessandro Commellato. Keith Jarrett was her adolescent soundtrack, alongside her father's vinyl of Genesis, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and the Beatles, and she has said her pieces do not start at a desk but out of free improvisation: when a harmonic progression or melody catches her, she stops, records it and then builds the form around it.

Her jazz education ran alongside the classical one. She studied jazz piano with Marco Detto, attended the permanent music-training workshop at the Siena Jazz Academy, and earned a diploma of merit at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena from the "Tabula rasa" improvisation seminar led by Stefano Battaglia. Her classical side stayed active too: she has played at Milan's Museo del Novecento, the Auditorium of Il Sole 24 Ore and the Gallerie d'Italia in Milan, Vicenza and Naples, has worked with Fazioli, LaVerdi and Divertimento Ensemble, and was chosen three years in a row by pianist Maria Grazia Bellocchio for a contemporary-music masterclass for young performers.

In 2017 her composition "Vibrazioni", written for a trio with bassist Riccardo Fioravanti and drummer Stefano Bagnoli, won an award from the Fondazione Estro Musicale; a version of it was later released on Spotify as a single (2019). Since 2016 she has also played in a duo, Il sogno, with trumpeter Luca Cosi, and she works on theater projects with ABC Musica e Teatro, Raggi di luce and Voci Sbagliate.

Her debut album, Casa (Filibusta Records, November 25, 2022), is a six-track solo-piano record of her own compositions, running about 38 minutes, and grew out of house concerts she organizes in her own home. Jazzitalia's press release frames it as a blend of jazz and classical music, and Roma in Jazz reviewer Fabrizio Ciccarelli heard a Jarrett-like syntax running through modernist fragments that recall Debussy and Ravel. The visual artist Laura Cagnacco made paintings to surround the piano at the live shows. Music from Casa won third prize at the Forum Live Jazz competition in Riolo Terme and first prize in the improvisation category of the Petrichor International Music Competition.

Cerizza also leads the Faith Trio, with Giancarlo Oggionni on double bass and Toni Boselli on drums. The trio won first prize at the SWISS International Music Competition in April 2024 and was named among 20 finalists at the Women In Jazz competition at Germany's Halle festival. Their debut album, Libra (Filibusta Records, March 21, 2025), collects nine originals, was presented at Rome's Casa del Jazz, and is her second album. Outside her own projects, she plays grand piano and synthesizer on saxophonist Bruno Romani's Organic Crossover Group album CPPP Requiem (2023), a live tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini on the centenary of his birth.

She also teaches: her Kleisma profile lists music-education workshops at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan since 2015.

Cerizza's playing sits where European classical piano meets jazz improvisation. Her solo record leans on lyrical, meditative harmony and long, open forms, and the Faith Trio's own materials cite Keith Jarrett, Paul Motian and Charlie Haden as sonic reference points, with nods to European classical music. Bach, Schumann, Bartók and Debussy are the classical composers she names; Jarrett is the jazz pianist she names directly. Discogs files Casa under Jazz with the style tag Contemporary Jazz.