Mariangela Vacatello Pianist

At the Milan Conservatory of Music she attained her Piano Degree in 1999 and Master Degree in 2006 under the guidance of R.Risaliti and P.Bordoni: on both occasions she was awarded top marks "cum Laude" and honourable mention. She also studied Composition with B. Zanolini and F. Vacchi and post-graduate piano with D. Merlet in Paris. Mariangela was able to further nurture her musical gifts drawing on the artistic experience of other great artists in a number of masterclasses held in Italy, Austria and France by Lonquich, Lortie, Jasinskj, Howard, Dalberto, Lucchesini, Weissenberg, Margulis, Dorensky, Virsaladze. She is currently attending the Post-Graduate Performance Course with Prof. Christopher Elton, Head of Keyboard Studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London and she is recipient of an award offered by the Academy, the Sterndale Bennett Scholarship. She has been awarded of scholarships from MBF (Dame Myra Hess Award), The Tillet Trust, Hattori Foundation and the Acadèmie musicale de Villecroze.

Laureate Prize at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition 2007 in Bruxelles, Mariangela has won an impressive series of prizes since the very beginning of her career at several competitions. Her first important international achievement dates from March 1999, when at age 17 she won 2nd prize at the "F. Liszt" International Piano Competition in Utrecht, Holland. In 2000 she was awarded the "G. Verdi: music for life" prize, in recognition of her precocious talent and extraordinary technical accomplishments. Additionally she won the IV National Competition for the "Best Italian Graduate" in Castrocaro Terme and also the 17th Venice Price awarded by "Amici della Fenice", open to the best Italian graduate pianists. In 2001 she was the recipient of the "Olivelli Prize" organised by Lyons Club and in 2002 she was selected to represent Italy in the Musical Interpretation Prize 2002 of Lions Club International in Bruxelles. Following the second, the critics' and audience prize at International Piano and Orchestra Competition in Cantù 2003,Mariangela won the "Concerti in Villa International Prize" in Vicenza, in June 2004 and most recently she was a finalist at the "Paloma O'Shea Piano Competition" in Santander and was awarded 2nd prize at the Busoni International Piano Competition 2005. Mariangela ,also, results as a finalist at the Parkhouse Award 2007 playing at Wigmore Hall, London, in duo with the cellist G.Gnocchi.

She began to have concert at age 5 and made her official debut in Milan at age 14 performing Liszt's 1st Piano Concerto with the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra. Since then she has appeared in the most prestigious Italian venues and festivals like A. B. Michelangeli.

Festival in Bergamo e Brescia,Società dei Concerti of Milan in Sala Verdi,Teatro Dal Verme, MiTo Settembre Musica Festival at Lingotto in Turin,Maggio Musicale Fiorentino"in Florence, Festival delle Nazioni" in Città di Castello, Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, MittelFest in Cividale delFriuli,Teatro Bibiena in Mantova, Sala Greppi in Bergamo, Amici della Musica di Verona, Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna, Sala Scarlatti and Teatro Diana in Naples, Parco della Musica , Villa Medici and Accademia Filarmonica Romana in Rome... both as a soloist and together with the cellist Rocco Filippini, the Ysaye Quartet, the violist Toby Hoffman, the cellist Gary Hoffman, the violinist Ilya Grubert, the solo trumpet of Teatro alla Scala Francesco Tamiati, the trumpet Yamaha Artist Nello Salza... Mariangela also worked with several orchestras such as the Lithuanian Symphony Orchestra, Johannesburg Philarmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra in Pretoria, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Zagreb Philarmonia Orchestra, Savaria Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra di Roma e del Lazio, Moldavian Radio Television Orchestra, under the baton of conductors of the rank of K.Penderecky, G.Korsten, B.Gueller, Z.Hamar, A.Nanut, G.Bellincampi, M.Tabachnik, D. Kawka, M. Haselboeck, B.Aprea, T.Pal.

She is in great demand in the international concert arena. Mariangela was invited to the Montpellier Festival in summer 2006, several times to Salle Cortot, to the Salon D'Honour du Musee de l'Armèe-Hotel des Invalides for Yamaha Music France and to the "Bagattelles" for Societè Chopin in Paris. Other venues which feature her performances are the Berlin Konzerthause, the Mozarteum Auditorium in Salzburg, Conservatoire, Bozar and Theatre de la Monnaie in Bruxelles, the Lisinsky Hall in Zagreb, the Duke's Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, the Linder Auditorium in Johannesburg, the Z.K.M. Great Hall in Pretoria, Palacio de Festivales di Santander.

In October 2002, Mariangela made her New York debut, playing at the Bargemusic and on December 2006 she gave a recital in the Weill Hall at the Carnegie Hall and in the Northeastern Illinois University of Chicago. In September 2003 she played several times in Mexico and toured with great acclaim in South Africa in the 2004 and 2006, where her performances got standing ovations and rave reviews.

Besides, Mariangela's performances are regularly broadcast by prestigious radio stations such as Radio France Musique, Musiq3 Belgique, Radio Svizzera Italiana, Radio 3 Italia, Radio Pretoria.