“Michelangelo is a very special talent, I haven’t encountered such a talent in a very longtime...meeting such a talent is not only a great pleasure, it is much more: it gives faith to the future in music” FOU TS’ONG
The Italian pianist Michelangelo Carbonara is distinguishing himself on the international scene, amongst the new generation of pianists, for his rare performing qualities and adventurous repertoire. The distinctive traits that so clearly set Michelangelo apart are his refined sensitivity coupled with a fervent dedication to tonal quality, and extraordinary finger dexterity. His popularity is also due to his huge and varied solo repertoire and to his predilection for extraordinarily interesting and complex composers, such as Schubert, Scarlatti, Mozart and Weber, not often attempted by the young generation. Moreover, Michelangelo has a polyphonic and orchestral approach to the piano - nursed by his deep passion for conducting - where technique always serves the music, and where the sound is always crucially important; a school of thought that descends from Claudio Arrau, Sir Clifford Curzon, Clara Haskil and, more recently, Radu Lupu.
Michelangelo Carbonara was born in 1979 in Salerno (Italy), starting musical studies when he was 5. He owes his piano formation to Sergio Perticaroli, William Grant Naboré and Fou Ts’ong. At 17, he graduated with top grades from the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome under the guidance of Fausto Di Cesare. In 1999 he achieved his Piano Specialization Degree with top grades at the Academy of Santa Cecilia, earning the Grant for the Best Graduate of the Year in the class of Sergio Perticaroli. Michelangelo furthered his studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum in Austria and the Académie Musicale de Villecroze (with Dominique Merlet) in France. In 2001 he was admitted to the famous International Piano Foundation “Theo Lieven” and the International Piano Academy Lake-Como (headed by the legendary Martha Argerich), to follow the master classes of Fou Ts’ong, Leon Fleisher, Graham Johnson, Dmitri Bashkirov, Alicia De Larrocha, Peter Frankl, Claude Frank, William Grant Naboré, Andreas Staier and many other luminaries. He has won numerous national and international piano competitions (around 20 prizes). At 18 he made his international debut with orchestra in Austria, where he played the Third and the First Beethoven Concertos in the same programme. In 2003 he debuted in China, also giving a master class at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. His repertory is extremely broad, and for 2006 he is preparing Mozart’s complete piano Concertos. Other activities include composition and conducting.