Photo: Benny Quinto

ALFONSO SOLDANO is known for his innate virtuosity, artistic ability and refined stylistic knowledge. He was born in 1986 and obtained the Distinguished Degree with Honor Mention in Piano Performance at a young age at Conservatory “N. Piccinni” in Bari. His mentor throughout his artistic development was Aldo Ciccolini. Soldano was the first prizewinner in several piano competitions in Italy from 2003 to 2008 and has since been invited to Italy and Eastern Europe as an artist, juror and guest professor.
He has worked with conductors such as O.Balan, D.Frandes, M.Cormio, V.Zhadko and has performed with many Italian and foreign orchestras and at numerous festivals and concerts. Soldano is an academic professor of piano playing at the “N. Piccinni” in Bari and was already a professor at the S. Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and at the Conservatories of Teramo, Taranto, Foggia and Lecce. He is artistic director of the European Art Academy “Aldo Ciccolini” Foundation in Trani. His latest CD, Solo Piano Works by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, was voted Best Classical CDs of 2017 in Florida. His Rachmaninoff CD of solo works was Album of the Month November 2020 in International Piano Magazine: “Soldano’s daring and lack of compromise, his indifference to conventional procedure are mesmeric… inimitable” (International Piano Magazine – Bryce Morrison). He also published the first biography of Ukrainian composer Sergej Bortkiewicz. He lives in Trani, Italy.