Fabio Bidini
piano

Biography

Italian pianist Fabio Bidini’s appearances have included performances with The London  Symphony Orchestra at  The Barbican, The Philharmonia Orchestra of London at Royal Festival Hall, the New World Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Forth Worth Chamber Orchestra, Forth Worth Symphony Orchestra, The Philharmonia Orchestra Prague at the Rudolphinum, and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra at Liszt Academy Hall.  He has collaborated with conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Ivan Fisher, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Zoltan Kocsis, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Thomas Hanus, Michael Christie, Gianandrea Noseda, Barry Wordsworth, Eri Klas, David Itkin, Keri-Lynn Wilson and JoAnn Falletta.

Mr. Bidini’s North American appearances in the 2009-10 season included his fourth return to the Buffalo Philharmonic, performing the Ravel G Major Concerto with JoAnn Falletta conducting in Buffalo, and touring with the orchestra in Sarasota, Vero Beach, Gainesville and Daytona Beach.  He opened the Louisiana Philharmonic’s 2009-10 season, performing Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations with Carlos Miguel Prieto conducting.  Upcoming 2010-11 appearances include those with the Orchestras of Binghamton and Las Vegas.

He has repeatedly been invited to perform at the prestigious festivals of Europe, including the Tuscan Sun Festival Cortona/Napa, Festival Radio France Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival, Stern Grove Festival, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli International Piano Festival/ Brescia, and Bergamo, Festival dei due Mondi.

A native of Arezzo, Italy, Mr. Bidini began his piano studies at the age of five.  Following ten years of private study, he enrolled in the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome where he graduated magna cum laude, then went on to study composition at the Florence Conservatory.   His teachers have included Orazio Frugoni (pupil of Alfredo Casella and Dinu Lipatti) and Maria Tipo (pupil of Scaramuzza, Casella, Agosti).  He has been awarded first prize in eleven of Italy’s most prestigious national piano competitions and has been the recipient of the top prizes awarded in eight international competitions - Terni, Köln, Busoni 1988 and 1992, Pretoria, Marsala, London and the Van Cliburn Fort Worth.  He made his North American debut in 1993 at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Summer Festival performing Beethoven’s Fantasy for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra Op. 80 with the Atlanta Symphony under the baton of Yoel Levi.

Mr. Bidini’s discography comprises thirteen CD’s recorded under the labels BMG, Classichord, Musikstrasse, EPR and True Sounds.

In 2005, Mr. Bidini accepted a professorship in the piano department at Berlin’s Univerität der Künste, and in 2009, he was appointed to one of the most prestigious chairs in German music schools at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, also in Berlin.

Website: http://www.fabiobidini.com

Critical Acclaim

Rocky Mountain News
Marc Shulgold

Colorado Symphony, Chopin e minor Concerto

"The Italian pianist Fabio Bidini brought a velvety tone to the moonstruck passages -- of which there are oodles -- and stormed with bravura through the numerous extroverted moments. Supported wonderfully by Christie's muscular yet sympathetic accompaniment, the pianist allowed the concerto to unfold with naturalness and an unforced quality. The relaxed sighings of the gorgeous Romanze have rarely cast such a spell on the listener. Time seemed to stand still, as Bidini and the muted strings of the CSO floated through the music.

Even before the Finale began, this performance had become a treasured highlight of the season."

The Dallas Morning News
By Scott Cantrell

"In our day of so much shrink-wrapped, portion-controlled pianism, so much of it as flavorful as airline food, an artist such as Fabio Bidini is doubly to be cherished. Appearing Saturday evening at the University of Texas at Arlington, at Irons Recital Hall, the Italian pianist held the music in a passionate, personal embrace. Beethoven and Chopin alternately glowed and blazed in his hands."

Special to the San Antonio Express-News
By Diane Windeler

"The agenda was mostly romantic — Schumann's "Symphonic Etudes" and some sumptuous Chopin — preceded by a graceful, crisply articulated account of the Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D-minor.

Bidini's approach is one of patrician elegance, tempered with warmth and occasionally spiced with the unexpected."