"Michele Campanella"

Internationally known as one of major interpreters and virtuoso of the Liszt repertoire, awarded the Grand Prix du Disque three years (1976, 1977 and 1998, the latter for «Franz Liszt - The Great Transcriptions, I-II» with Philips) by the prestigious «Franz Liszt» Academy in Budapest, Michele Campanella has faced in over 40 years of career most of the principal pages of the piano literature.

Highlights from his last important goals are the integral performance of Beethoven’s and Mozart’s Concerts and Brahms’s Integral works for piano.

Trained at the Vincenzo Vitale school in Naples, Michele Campanella is a versatile artist.

This characteristic brought him to face authors like Clementi, Weber, Poulenc, Busoni («Italian Discographic Critic Reward» for the recording with Fonit Cetra) and Rossini, Brahms, Ravel and Liszt.

His discography includes recording for Emi (Ravel), Philips (Liszt, Saint-Saëns), Fonè (Chopin), PYE (Liszt, Ciaikowsky), Fonit Cetra (Busoni), Nuova Era (Ciaikowsky, Liszt, Musorgskij, Balakirev), Musikstrasse (Rossini), P&P (Brahms, Liszt, Scarlatti), Niccolò (Schumann).

He performed with the major European and American orchestras (Philadelphia Orchestra,Chicago Symphony,San Francisco Symphony) working with conductors like Claudio Abbado, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Eliahu Inbal, Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Georges Prêtre, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Thomas Schippers, Hubert Soudant, Christian Thielemann.

His activity brings him frequently in Australia, Russia, United Kingdom, Argentina, China, and he is a regular guest in the international festival of Lucerne, Vienna, Berlin, Prague and Pesaro (Rossini Opera Festival,for which he recorded Petite Messe Solennelle)

In the Nineties, he developed a strong artistic relationship with Salvatore Accardo and Rocco Filippini as ideal partners to face chamber music masterpieces.

During the last years, he has enriched his career performing as conductor-soloist with several prestigious Italian orchestras, such as the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the ORT-Orchestra della Toscana, the Orchestra da Camera di Padova e del Veneto, I Filarmonici di Verona, the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento. His repertoire has included Ravel, Fauré, Poulenc, Franck, Saint-Saëns, Schumann, Weber, Liszt, as well as Mozart and Beethoven.

He teaches piano at the summer masterclasses of Accademia Chigiana in Siena since 23 years, and he is the director of the “Centro di Studi pianistici Vincenzo Vitale” in Naples, where are teaching the best pupils of the great neapolitan master. Campanella is also the president of the “Società Liszt”, Italian chapter of the American Liszt Society.