NEUE STERNE MUSIC ACADEMY HANNOVER
Philippo Balducci
Italy
Filippo Balducci... an absolutely extraordinary musical talent, a pianist of unusual insight, maturity and
artistic imagination… His keen intelligence, impeccable musical taste and sophisticated technique afford him
interpretations of extreme beauty and emotional power… (Lev Natochenny).
Filippo Balducci graduated summa cum laude and mention of honour from the Conservatory of Music “N. Piccinni” in Bari under the direction of Angela Montemurro. He continued his studies with Fausto Zadra at the “Ecole Internationale de Piano” in Lausanne as well as Aquiles Delle Vigne at the Ecole Normale “A. Cortot” in Paris. The professional relationship both with Montemurro, Zadra and Delle Vigne has been fundamental for Balducci’s vocational training.
He also attended numerous master classes with, among others, Sergio Fiorentino, Jorg Demus, Gyorgy Sandor, Paul Badura Skoda, Michele Marvulli, Luis De Maura Castro, Lev Natochenny, Vladimir Feltsmann, at the most important training Academies in Europe and U.S., such as the Music Festival of Merano, the University of Hartford-Connecticut, the Piano Academy of Imola, the Music Academy of Pescara. He was also granted several scholarships based on merit and repeatedly hired for concerts.
The fruitful experience with Benedetto Lupo, under whose direction he successfully obtained a Master Degree in Piano, has been particularly inspiring for Balducci’s artistic development.
Since his early youth, Filippo Balducci has succeeded in several national and international piano competitions: He won the absolute first prize in Osimo, Lamezia Terme and Caserta; He also won the
second prize in the competitions “S. Rachmaninoff” in Morcone and “F. Liszt” in Lucca as well as the third prize in Senigallia. The highlights of Balducci’s awards, however, those at the international competitions in Enna (first prize), Pinerolo (second prize) as well as in the A.M.S.A World Piano Competition, in Cincinnati (ex-aequo second prize, first not assigned).
He started his brilliant and intense activity as a concert artist when he was only 13, performing throughouthis career in some of the most important venues in Italy (Arezzo, Bari, Campobasso, Grosseto, Florence, Lecce, Merano, Milan, Varese, Naples, Pescara, Perugia, Pistoia, Ravello, Rome, Taranto, Trieste etc.) and abroad. (Paris, Nice, Lausanne, Lugano, Mannheim, Luckau, Madrid, Moskow, Bilbao, Izola, Adana, Hartford, Cincinnati). He has also performed as a soloist along with several orchestras such as the Mozart Camerata
de Lausanne, the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra, the International Orchestra of Magna Grecia, the Insubric Orchestra, the Turkish State Symphony Orchestra, the New Philharmonic Orchestra, the “Mario Gusella” Orchestra of Pescara, the Chamber EurOchestra of Bari and the Italian Symphonietta, all conducted, among others, by Marc Andreae, Enrique Batiz, Maurizio Billi, Umberto Cattini, Josif Conta, Roberto Gianola, Beat Hofstetter, Julius Kalmar, Francesco Lentini, Giovanni Battista Mazza, Domenico Molinini, Roberto Misto, Aldo
Sisillo, Fausto Zadra, Joshua Zona.
Filippo Balducci recorded for radio networks such as Italian RAI and American WGUC as well as participated in Italian music festival "Monografie sul '900 e dintorni"; and performed the VII Dialogue for two Pianos and Orchestra by Gian Francesco Malipiero, along with his fellow-pianist Anna Maria Strano. The entire festival won the “Franco Abbiati” critics’ award and was recorded by Stradivarius.
As a passionate interpreter of Alexander Skrjabin, he has recorded a CD entitled Scriabine. Portrait d'un visionnaire for the DIGRESSIONEMUSIC label, and is the author of the essay Music of the Apocalypse: the revolution of Scriabin published by SBF, also available in digital format. In 2022, as well as in 2015, he dedicated most of his concerts to Scriabin, some of which were held in the form of lectures-concerts, thus paying his personal homage to the great Russian composer on the anniversary of his birth and of his death.
Filippo Balducci has devoted particular attention to Chamber Music since 1994, when he was granted the scholarship for the workshop “Young European Pianists of Chamber Music” hold by Pavel Vernikov and Fausto Zadra. He has performed important pages from the repertoire for piano and strings, from the Duet to the Quintet, in prestigious venues, such as the Auditorium “De Singel” in Antwerp, the Royal Conservatory of Bruxelles, and the Euro-festival of Camerino. He has also attended several Chamber-music courses with the Trio of Trieste, Konstantin Bogino and Igor Oistrach.
Winner of three professorship competitions based on both qualifications and tests, Balducci is currently professor of Piano at the Conservatory of Bari. He was Fausto Zadra’s assistant at the Ecole Internationale de Piano of Lausanne and the International Festival of the Mediterranean in Cullera, Valencia. He also worked closely with Delle Vigne at the Bain de Musique Festival of Flaine.
Balducci currently holds regular master classes in Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Russia. He has been a jury member at national and international piano competitions and he is founder and curator of the Corato Piano Festival.
In 2021 he published the essay The piano technique and the art of touch. A gift from Fausto Zadra in which he summarizes the precious teachings of the great Italian-Argentine master.