Carbonara Michelangelo
Michelangelo Carbonara, born in Salerno in 1979, owes his pianistic training mainly to Sergio Perticaroli, William Grant Naboré and Fou Ts’ong.
He began studying music at the age of five with Paola Barbera, and at six he started composing and performing in public. After studying with Giuliana Bordoni Brengola, he graduated in 1996 with top marks under Fausto Di Cesare. In 1999 he completed the three-year advanced course at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with top marks, also winning the scholarship for the best graduate of the year in Sergio Perticaroli’s class.
He continued his studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the Académie Musicale de Villecroze in France, and attended masterclasses by Bruno Canino, Dominique Merlet and György Sándor. Since 2001 he has been selected for the exclusive masterclasses of the International Piano Foundation “Theo Lieven” in Cadenabbia and of the International Piano Academy Lake Como, chaired by Martha Argerich. He has studied piano with great masters such as Leon Fleisher, Dimitri Bashkirov, Claude Frank, Menahem Pressler, Andreas Staier, Peter Frankl and Alicia de Larrocha, chamber music with the Trio di Trieste and song accompaniment with Graham Johnson. More recently he met Aldo Ciccolini, drawing on his advice especially for the French repertoire.
He has won 17 prizes in international competitions (including the Schubert Competition in Dortmund). In 2003 he made his debut in China, performing among other venues at the Central Conservatory in Beijing. In June 2007 he made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York, and today his career takes him to many countries (France, Switzerland, Germany, England, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Malta, South Korea, China, Japan, the United States and Canada). In 2009 he played at the Prague Spring festival with his colleague and friend Cédric Pescia, and as a soloist with the Timișoara Orchestra in Romania. In Italy he has performed in some of the most prestigious halls, such as the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, the Auditorium and the Sala Verdi in Milan and the Lingotto in Turin.
He has recorded for Papageno, Tactus and Suonare Records. In 2008 he recorded the complete piano works of Maurice Ravel for Brilliant Classics, which was very well received by the international press and was the subject of an article by Claudio Strinati in Il Venerdì di Repubblica; in 2009 a CD of solo piano music by Nino Rota and a double CD of Domenico Scarlatti sonatas were released, also by Brilliant Classics. In 2011 he recorded three Schubert sonatas for Piano Classics, starting a cycle of the composer’s complete published and unpublished sonatas.
For the 2005-2007 seasons he was selected by the prestigious Keyboard Charitable Trust in London, and since October 2006 he has enjoyed the sponsorship and support of the Associazione Ambrosia in Milan. In 2007 he also became one of the artists supported by CIDIM, as a member of the Fortuna Piano Trio. With this ensemble (with Markus Placci, violin, and Kyung Mi Lee, cello) he toured successfully in four South American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay). The trio also recorded a CD of works by Schubert and Brahms for Nascor-Ysaye Records-Harmonia Mundi.
Since 1996 he has played in duo with many violinists, violists, cellists, flautists and clarinettists. He performs regularly with cellist Kyung Mi Lee, violinists Markus Placci, Marco Serino and Pasquale Farinacci, flautist Daria Grillo, clarinettist Paolo Marchettini, soprano Irene Rinaldi and Icelandic baritone Sigurdur Bragason. He is the official performer of the piano music of composer Cristian Carrara and has recorded a CD entirely devoted to this repertoire (A Piano Diary, Egea, 2011). Since 2006 he has also appeared in the dual role of conductor and soloist.
Alongside his concert career he teaches piano, chamber music and theory. He taught chamber music for USAC at the Università della Tuscia in Viterbo, and has given masterclasses in Romania, China and Canada.
In 2005 he was chosen as an ambassador of Italian music at the Premio Nazionale delle Arti promoted by the Italian Ministry of Education.