Gabriele Baldocci (born May 10, 1980 in

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

) is an Italian

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

naturalised British. Baldocci is known worldwide for performing with the legendary Argentinean pianist Martha Argerich After studying with Ilio Barontini, Franco Scala,

William Grant Naboré The pianist and pedagogue, William Grant Nabore’ was born in Roanoke, Virginia (USA) where he studied with Kathleen Kelly Coxe, a pupil of Alexander Siloti, the teacher of Sergej Rachmaninov and afterwards with the eminent musicologist, Anne ...

, and Sergio Perticaroli and having studied with or having been coached by Alicia De Larrocha, Leon Fleisher, and Dmitri Bashkirov at the International Piano Academy Lake Como, Baldocci began an intense solo career performing in important venues worldwide ( Tonhalle in Zurich,

Teatro Colón The Teatro Colón (Spanish: ''Columbus Theatre'') is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acousti ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, Sala Verdi in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

). His large repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary music and is especially focused on the composers of the Romantic Period such as

Fryderyk Chopin The Fryderyk is the annual award in Polish music. Its name refers to the original Polish spelling variant of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin's first name. Its status in the Polish public can be compared to the American Grammy and the UK's BRI ...

(of whom he has recorded the complete Ballades and Impromptus),

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

, and

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

. In 2012 he began recording and performing the complete Beethoven Symphonies transcribed by Liszt for piano solo. Very active as a chamber musician, he has performed with

Ivry Gitlis Ivry Gitlis ( he, עברי גיטליס;‎ 25 August 1922 – 24 December 2020) was an Israeli virtuoso violinist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. He performed with the world's top orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, New York Philha ...

, Marco Fornaciari,

Mark Drobinsky Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Finn ...

, and other great names of the international music scene. Baldocci has toured extensively in duo with Martha Argerich, his good friend and mentor. Since 2008 he has formed a stable piano duo with the Argentinean pianist Daniel Rivera; they have performed at important music Festivals around the world. Since 2010 he has been artistic director and Ambassador of the Martha Argerich Presents Project (MAPp), an ambitious project launched by Argerich to encourage cooperation between famous artists and young talented musicians in order to create a worldwide circuit of performances and pedagogy. More recently, Gabriele Baldocci has advanced his career as a conductor, collaborating with important orchestras in Europe and America, and he cultivates his interest for cinema producing and directing short and feature movies. In 2016 he played keyboard in the

Progressive Rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band The Gift, publishing the album "Why the Sea Is Salt" for Bad Elephant Music. Baldocci is a Piano Professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance after six years spent at the

Potenza Potenza (, also , ; , Potentino dialect: ''Putenz'') is a ''comune'' in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata (former Lucania). Capital of the Province of Potenza and the Basilicata region, the city is the highest regional capital and one ...

Conservatory of Music and he is the Director of the London Piano Centre and of the Milton Keynes Music Academy.Milton Keynes Music Academy
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References

External links

Baldocci Official WebpageMartha Argerich Presents Project official page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldocci, Gabriele 1980 births Living people Italian classical pianists Male classical pianists Italian male pianists People from Livorno 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century Italian male musicians