Giuseppe Bruno & Paolo Valcepina - Piano Four Hands Concert - FREE EVENT

Overtures, arias and scenes from European operas

Bruno-Valcepina piano duet

(Supported by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University )

Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

from Die Zauberflöte:

• Overture
• Aria of the Queen of the night

transcription: Alexander von Zemlinsky

Georges Bizet

Fantasy on Carmen themes

transcription: Otto Singer

Camille Saint-Saëns

from Samson et Dalila:

• Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix

transcription: Paul Dukas

Gioacchino Rossini

from Il barbiere di Siviglia:

• Largo al factotum

transcription: Arnold Schoenberg

Richard Strauss

from Guntram:

• Prelude to act II

transcription: Otto Singer

Richard Wagner

from Tannhäuser:

• Pilgrim’s chorus

transcription: Fritz Spindler

Giacomo Puccini

from Turandot:

• Nessun dorma

transcription: Carlotta Ferrari

Gioacchino Rossini

from Guglielmo Tell:

• Overture

transcription: Louis Moreau Gottschalk

Giuseppe Bruno, piano

Giuseppe Bruno has master degree in composition, in piano and conducting, respectively with Prof. Piero Luigi Zangelmi in Reggio Emilia Conservatory, Prof. Alessandro Specchi in Firenze Cherubini Conservatory and Prof. Gianluigi Gelmetti and Gianpiero Taverna in Milan Verdi Conservatory. He had also attended piano master-class of Paolo Bordoni, conducting master-class of Leopold Hager and Franco Ferrara, as well as composition seminar at IRCAM.

He had performed as a pianist for several years in many different chamber ensembles as well as a brilliant soloist in most of Italian towns. He has played with many important orchestras in Italy, USA, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine, Spain, Austria and Germany in a repertory that goes from Mozart to Dallapiccola.

From 1987 to 1992, he participated in the "Due Mondi" festival in Spoleto Italy and in 1988, he also attended the Charleston festival in the USA. In 1991, Maestro Bruno received 2nd Prize at International Piano Contest in Rome and in 1992, he received 3rd Prize in a duo with violin player Alberto Bologni at the "Viotti" in Vercelli, Italy.

He recorded for Nuova Fonit Cetra, Diapason, SAM, Bongiovanni, Ars publica, Ars Musici, as well as for RAI, Swiss French and Italian radio and for WDR in Cologne.

He collaborated with conductors including Alkis Baltas, Spiros Argiris, Franz Lamprecht, Corneliu Dumbraveanu, violinist Sashko Gawriloff, singers Gail Gilmore and Victor von Halem, and with the Octet of Berlin Philharmonic. He is currently a member of the Trio Petrarca. In the past few years, he has been acknowledged as a highly regarded conductor in Italy and abroad.

Maestro Bruno is at present the director of the Giacomo Puccini Conservatory, in La Spezia, Italy.

Paolo Valcepina, piano

Born in 1983, Paolo Valcepina is a brilliant Italian virtuoso. He took his master degree in piano cum laude under Ottavio Minola in Milan, Conservatorio di Musica Giuseppe Verdi; he had attended master-class in Luxembourg with Dana Protopopescu, in Milan with Paul Badura-Skoda, in Santa Margherita Ligure with Irene Veneziano, in Seveso Marziali Academy and in Florence with Bruno Canino.

Paolo Valcepina was the winners of several piano competitions: In 1999, he placed second at first edition of Camillo Togni National Contest and won 6th International Competition for Young Musicians in Varenna; In 2000, he won 6th competition City of Giussano and obtained second prize at 7th Lario in Musica Competition; In 2004, he placed second at 9th City of Racconigi International Competition and 1st at City of Pesaro National Piano Reward; in 2005, Paolo Valcepina won third prize at famous Premio Venezia, a competition taking place every year at Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice reserved to best Italian pianists.

Paolo Valcepina has appeared as a soloist in prestigious venues and festivals worldwide: Gotischer Saal in Salzburg, Triennale dell' Arte Palace in Milan, Auditorium al Duomo in Florence, Teatre Armengol in Bellpuig, concert season in L'Alpe d'Huez, Amici della Musica season in Sardinia, Institut Français de Florence, Music University in Luxembourg, Villa Bernocchi on Lake Maggiore, Al Duomo concert hall in Florence, Poschiavo in Switzerland among many others.

Interested in new musical languages, Paolo Valcepina is also a composer; he studied composition in Milan Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, under Massimo Bertola.

In some of his concerts, he is used to present newly written compositions. In the year of 2007 and 2008, he was the pianist of a contemporary exhibition called "In Forme Armoniche", in which a series of 12 small piano pieces were inspired to 12 wooden sculptures by figurative artist Lux Bradanini; In 2008, he played piano in the project called "Giorno d'Ira", a secular cantata written in memory of the victims of terrorism.