ANTONIO CONSALES

Pianist, composer, and teacher, Antonio Consales began a brilliant career at a very young age, which led him to give concerts and masterclasses in piano performance and interpretation in numerous countries; he has completed several international tours in the United States of America (New York, Washington DC, Ohio, Oregon, California, Minnesota, Hawaii, Tennessee, Virginia), Canada, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, USSR, Europe (Germany, Greece, Spain, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic), in addition to performing from a very young age in the main Italian cities as a guest of theaters and institutional bodies, prestigious festivals, and concert seasons.

Born in Cosenza, he began studying piano at the age of seven with Alda Misuraca (formerly a student of F. Rossomandi in Naples) and soon developed a passion for the instrument and the great classical composers. Demonstrating remarkable artistic abilities from an early age (he performed his first recital at just eleven years old, receiving flattering praise), he soon entered the “S. Giacomantonio” Conservatory in his hometown, earning his undergraduate degree at a very young age with top marks, honors, and the “ad Honorem” distinction in Antonella Barbarossa’s class. A pivotal moment in his development was the encounter with the prestigious Neapolitan piano school led by concert pianist and teacher Annamaria Pennella (formerly a student of L. Finizio, A. Benedetti Michelangeli, and M. Long), with whom he shared a long period of artistic growth. Equally valuable were the meetings with several renowned musicians and educators who praised the young pianist’s talents and helped refine his artistic personality, including: Bruno L. Gelber, Jorg Demus, Paul Badura-Skoda, Antonello Neri, Lazar Berman, Marcello Abbado, Bruno Canino, Sergio Perticaroli, Carlo Zecchi; the latter, listening to him in a performance of some of Chopin’s Etudes at the age of 15, defined him as “an extraordinary talent endowed with a remarkable musicality”.

Winner of numerous national and international piano competitions and prizes from an early age, in 1992 he won the “Ferenc Liszt” International Piano Prize in Rome, to which are added important awards and honors: Gold Medal at Columbus Day in New York – 1990, “Franco Ferrara” Prize at the Senate of the Republic – Rome 1996, Grand Prize at the USA Classic Music Awards in New York – Yamaha Concert Hall (1999), in 2000 he received the “Pericle D’Oro per la Musica” Award in Bovalino – Reggio Calabria, the Vatican Gold Medal at the concert in memory of Pope John Paul II – Castel Gandolfo 2011, the Gold Medal of the State Carabinieri on the occasion of the bicentenary of its foundation – 2014; following the official concert for the President of the Republic of Armenia, A. Sarkissian, held in the capital Yerevan and broadcast by the state television, he was publicly awarded the title of Honorary Guest Artist of Armenia at the conclusion of the national tour (Gyumri – 2019).

As a soloist, he has performed with major orchestras in Italy and abroad, such as: the Ohio State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Republic Symphony Orchestra, the European Jeunesse Orchestra, the Krakow Symphony Orchestra, the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of the Yerevan Opera Theatre, the ‘F. Ferrara’ Chamber Orchestra, the Mediterranea Philharmonia, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Euromediterranean Festival Symphony Orchestra, the Minneapolis Philharmonic, the Calabria Philharmonic Orchestra, the Municipal Orchestra of Thessaloniki, the Gyumri Armenian State Symphony, and the Cosenza Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with instrumentalists, composers, and conductors of international caliber, including the renowned Maxence Larrieu, Paul Badura-Skoda, Marcello Abbado, Angelo Persichilli, the American flutist Viviana Guzman, the Armenian conductors Jervand Varosyan, Ruben Asatryan, and many others.

The artist’s repertoire ranges from J. S. Bach to the main Classical composers and the most representative piano works of the Romantic and late Romantic periods, with a particular inclination towards the Russian school, of which he has been recognized by critics as a refined interpreter.

He has made numerous recordings for RAI Italian Radio and Television, for RAI International broadcast worldwide (Concert for the Third Millennium on the occasion of New Year’s 2000, soloist with the Mediterranea Philharmonia conducted by L. De Filippi – Mozart Concerto K 466), for the German State Radio (soloist with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra conducted by D. R. Davis – Mozart Concerto K 414 in 1998), and for the Armenian State Radio and Television (Rachmaninov Gala from the Khachaturyan Concert Hall in Yerevan, soloist with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by R. Asatryan – Rachmaninov Concerto No. 2 Op. 18 in 2014).

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, in 2022 he served as Artistic Director of the project “Scriabin 150,” in which he was the first performer in Calabria of the Piano Concerto Op. 20, soloist with the Symphony Orchestra of the Conservatory of Cosenza conducted by F. Da Ros (Teatro A. Rendano).

Antonio Consales has been Artistic Director of important festivals, concert series, and music awards: Euromediterranean Festival of Altomonte, Vibo Piano Master Festival for the State Conservatory and the Polytechnic “Scientia ed Arts” of Vibo Valentia, the World Piano Symposium of Yerevan in Armenia; he founded the “Franco Ferrara” International Academy in Altomonte together with Marcello Abbado, Annamaria Pennella and Antonino Zichichi, in which he served as Director of the advanced piano training school that hosted long-established concert performers and teachers; several students of the Academy have achieved international careers, among them the famous concert pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi.

Always a supporter of the primary social function fulfilled by musical language, the artist regularly dedicates events to supporting projects and charitable associations at an international level: Gold Medal from Rotary International (Columbus, Ohio, USA ’09), Gold Medal from Telethon, the Italian campaign against genetic diseases (Rome 1996), “Yerevan My Love” from the Presidential Foundation for the Children of Armenia (Yerevan 2019), Gold Medal from the “F. D. Roosevelt Foundation” (Bologna 1992), Honorary Member as a supporter of Bambi, the Association of Friends of Children in Pediatric Surgery, and many others.

Already a teacher at the State Conservatories “E. R. Duni” in Matera, “F. Cilea” in Reggio Calabria, and “F. Torrefranca” in Vibo Valentia, since 2014 he has been a Full Professor of Piano at the State Conservatory “S. Giacomantonio” in Cosenza; he regularly gives Piano Masterclasses for advanced pianists in Italy and abroad and serves as a jury member in international music competitions and awards.

Honorary Academic Artist and member of the International Council of Artists of the Piano World Academy based in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, Antonio Consales is engaged in an exclusive recording collaboration, produced by the Academy itself for the global digital market, dedicated to the main classical-romantic composers for piano, as well as to the complete recording and publication of his own compositions and musical transcriptions; recent releases include works by Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and original pieces by Consales himself.

The unconditional love for music and the piano represents the vital core of Antonio Consales, who combines constant study and research, concert activity, and teaching commitment into a single artistic inspiration.