Michelangelo Carbonara Biography:

Michelangelo Carbonara (Salerno,1979) owes his piano training mainly to Sergio Perticaroli, William Grant Naboré and Fou Ts’Ong.

Then he studied with Giuliana Bordoni Brengola and he graduated at seventeen at the Conservatory Santa Cecilia in Rome, with full marks, under Fausto Di Cesare’s guidance.

In 1999 he was awarded his Piano Specialisation Degree by the Academy of Santa Cecilia, winning a grant as best graduate of the year.

He continued his studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum and at the Académie Musicale de Villecroze in France. He attended masterclasses headed by Bruno Canino, Dominique Merlet and Gyorgy Sandor.

In 2001 he was admitted to the International Piano Foundation “Theo Lieven” and the International Piano Academy Lake-Como headed by Martha Argerich. He had lessons with many important pianists such as Leon Fleisher, Dimitri Bashkirov, Claude Frank, Menahem Pressler, Andreas Staier, Peter Frankl and Alicia De Larrocha.

Recently he met Aldo Ciccolini, benefiting from his advice especially for the French repertoire.

He has won 17 prizes in International piano competitions (including the Schubert International Piano Competition in Dortmund).

In 2007 he became one of the artists promoted by the Italian National Committee for Music (CIDIM), as pianist of Fortuna Piano Trio, together with the violinist Markus Placci and the cellist Kyung Mi Lee. They performed in Europe and in South America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay).

Since 2006 he has also performed in the dual role of conductor and soloist.

His repertoire includes all Schubert sonatas and the complete piano music by Carl Maria von Weber, and most of the works by Brahms, Schumann, Beethoven, Clementi and Platti, several Scarlatti sonatas and music by many Polish composers of the XX century. In 2005 he was invited at the National Prize for Arts, promoted by the Italian Ministery for Culture, as testimonial for the italian music.

He is active also as conductor, composer, arranger and recording director of classical music as well as jazz, pop and film music.