Francesco Nicolosi

He is Artistic Director of the Sigismund Thalberg International Piano Prize and until 2015 he was Artistic Director in many important Italian summer festivals such as “I concerti d’Estate a Villa Guariglia” in Vietri sul mare, "Jeux d'art a Villa d'Este" in Tivoli, "Roccaraso in Musica" and of the International Piano Masterclass in Naples and Rome.

1994: Prize "Gold Bellini" (previously awarded to artists such as Maria Callas, Riccardo Muti, Luciano Pavarotti, etc.)

2012: "Note nell'Olimpo" Prize 2012 "Domenico Danzuso" Prize 2013 "Cosimo Fanzago" Prize 2017 Sergei Rachmaninov International Award (nomination: "Special Project in the name of Rachmaninov") 2021 "Pietro Golia" Prize Nicolosi has played recitals and as a soloist with prestigious orchestras in some of the most famous concert halls in the world: Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Victoria Hall of Geneva, Radio Nacional in Madrid, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Teatro alla Scala and Sala Verdi in Milan, Teatro dell’Opera and Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Herkulessaal in Munich, Brahmssaal in Vienna, Kennedy Center in Washington, Megaron in Athens among others.

The authoritative Corriere della Sera critic and musicologist Paolo Isotta wrote of Nicolosi on the occasion of the recent recording of two rare concerts of Paisiello: (...) listening to him playing is enough to remind us that no one today can match his luminosity of sound, his ability to draw out the song-like legato qualities of a keyboard instrument ... he has acquired a reputation as one of our greatest living pianists ...

The great Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli performed eighteenth-century works, his inspiration came principally from the same source as Nicolosi’s, but perhaps lacked some of the latter’s lucidity and coherence.