Tour Dates: 10 - 21 October, 2013

Internationally known as one of major interpreters and virtuoso of the Liszt repertoire, Michele Campanella has faced in over 40 years of career most of the principal pages of the piano literature.

11 October, Concert Hall of Nanjing Art Institute, Private Concert
13 October, Shanghai Concert Hall, 021- 62172426/62173055
19 October, Beijing Concert Hall, 010-66057006
20 October, Tianjin Grand Auditorium, 022-28351443/88354397

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 Campanella to face authors like Clementi, Weber, Poulenc, Busoni (“Italian Discographic Critic Reward” for the recording with Fonit Cetra) and Rossini, Brahms, Ravel and Liszt.

Campanella's 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).

Campanella 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, Pinchas Steinberg, Christian Thielemann.

Campanella's 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, Campanella 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.

As a dedicated and passionate teacher, he was head of the piano department at the Accademia Chigiana of Siena from 1986 to 2010 and held advanced training courses for eight years in Ravello. He also directed the Vincenzo Vitale Center for Piano Studies at the University Suor Orsola Benincasa of Naples.

From 2008 he is President of the Italian chapter of the American Liszt Society.

In 2011, the year in which the world celebrated the bicentenary of Franz Liszt's birth, Campanella dedicated his entire musical activity, both as pianist and conductor, to the Hungarian composer he has studied and loved from the age of 14, engaging himself in a long series of solo concerts in Italy and abroad: at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Unione Musica in Turin, Fondazione Cini of Venice for the Wagner Society, Verdi Conservatorie of Milan, Theatre San Carlo in Naples, Accademia Musicale Chigiana of Siena, Aquila, Piacenza, Cremona, Udine and Parma. Together with the Orchestra Luigi Cherubini, Campanella acting as soloist and conductor performed all of Liszt's repertoire for piano and orchestra in one evening in Ravenna, as part of the famous Ravenna Festival.

Campanella's most important international engagements of 2011 included concerts in Buenos Aires, Suntory Hall of Tokyo and three performances in Chicago with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the climax of the Liszt celebrations performing the Liszt Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra.

In addition, in collaboration with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Campanella has created and directed at the Parco della Musica in Rome, a series of Liszt Marathons during which the integral music written by Liszt for piano was performed. This was an event involving 75 pianists that has taken on great interest since it is something never before been attempted.

In addition to his activity as a musician, Campanella adds the role of writer. In 2011 Bompiani published his book Il mio Liszt, an homage the pianist dedicated to his author of reference.

In 2012, Michele Campanella received the prestigious prizes Premio Scanno for Music and Premio Grotta di Tiberio.

In 2013, in the bicentennial year of the birth of Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi, Campanella will be engaged in a long series of concerts dedicated to Franz Liszt's Paraphrases, a place of meeting in music between the works and lifes of the two composers and the international label Brilliant Classics will release a Special Edition - 3 CDs set dedicated.

Michele Campanella will tour Italy, Hungary, Spain, Russia, Germany and China confirming his important role of Music Ambassador in the World.