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Alessandro Taverna’s “music making stimulates the senses as does a visit to his native Venice”, and gives “rise to a feeling of wonderment”. He came to international prominence at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2009, when “Suddenly the world was suddenly suffused with grave beauty: flawless minutes of poetry”, said the newspaper The Independent. wrote the British daily The Independent after his performance of Chopin’s First Piano Concerto.
Since then, his career has taken him to perform worldwide in the most important concert halls and musical seasons, including Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Musikverein in Vienna, Gasteig in Munich, Lincoln Center in New York, the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Teatro del Maggio in Florence, Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Sala Verdi in Milan, Auditorium Toscanini in Turin, Auditorio della Radiotelevisione Svizzera in Lugano, Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, the Konzerthaus in Berlin and DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen.
He has worked under the direction of Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Fabio Luisi, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniel Harding, Gianandrea Noseda, Michele Mariotti, Daniele Rustioni, Robert Trevino, Thierry Fischer, Alpesh Chauhan, Michele Gamba, Carlo Boccadoro, Hartmut Haenchen, Asher Fisch and Yutaka Sado, and has performed with prestigious orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Filarmonica della Scala, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Bucharest Philharmonic, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and Camerata Salzburg.
Highly active in chamber music, he collaborates with artists including Francesca Dego, Martin Owen, Mariangela Vacatello, Enrico Bronzi, Edgar Moreau, Alena Baeva, Maxim Rysanov, Fumiaki Miura and Clara-Jumi Kang.
He has been a prizewinner at major international piano competitions such as the Piano-e-Competition in the United States, the Leeds, London and Hamamatsu piano competitions, the Busoni Competition in Bolzano, the Premio Venezia and the Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize.
In 2012 he received the “President of the Republic Award” at the Quirinale from Giorgio Napolitano, in recognition of his artistic achievements and international career.
He studied with Laura Candiago Ferrari at the Fondazione Musicale Santa Cecilia in Portogruaro and graduated with top marks, honours and special mention from the Cesare Pollini Conservatory in Padua. After further studies with Piero Rattalino at the School of Advanced Studies in Portogruaro, he completed his artistic training at the Imola Piano Academy with Franco Scala, Leonid Margarius, Boris Petrushansky and Louis Lortie. He obtained his diploma cum laudefrom the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Sergio Perticaroli and completed further studies at the Lake Como Piano Academy with William Naboré, Fou Ts’ong, Dmitri Bashkirov, Malcolm Bilson and Stanislav Ioudenitch, and at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover with Arie Vardi.
He is frequently invited to give masterclasses for Italian and international institutions and to serve on juries of international piano competitions. He also collaborates as a music commentator for Rai Radio 1 FVG.
He has recorded albums for Sony Classical, Somm, Musicom, RaiTrade and Tzadik. In 2023, together with Francesca Dego and Martin Owen, he recorded for Chandos Records an album featuring trios for violin, horn and piano by Brahms, Ligeti and Mozart.
He holds a professorship at the Pollini Conservatory in Padua. He also teaches at the Imola Piano Academy “Incontri con il Maestro” and at the School of Advanced Studies of the Fondazione Musicale Santa Cecilia in Portogruaro.
He is Artistic Director of the Portogruaro International Music Festival and Artistic Consultant for music and dance at Teatro Verdi in Pordenone.