Antonio Pompa-Baldi

Antonio Pompa-Baldi (born December 1, 1974) is an Italian-American pianist. The first prize winner in the 1999 Cleveland International Piano Competition and silver medalist of the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Pompa-Baldi has been noted by The New York Times for his "meltingly beautiful" playing. Pompa-Baldi currently serves as distinguished professor of piano and head of the piano department at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Early life and education Pompa-Baldi was born to a non-musical family in Foggia, Italy. When he was about three years old, his parents stumbled upon a television broadcast of a performance of a piano concerto, and Pompa-Baldi, captivated, started "playing on the table". Shortly after, his parents gave him a toy piano, on which he taught himself to play some tunes by ear. He began formal piano lessons at the age of four with Vittorio Sannoner,

Career In 1998 Pompa-Baldi received the 3rd Prize at the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris, France. He also received the special prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary work written for the competition ("Tumultes" by Serge Nigg). In 1999 he won the first prize in the Cleveland International Piano Competition, which led to over 450 concert engagements within two years. In 2001 Pompa-Baldi won a silver medal at the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001 in addition to the special prize for the best performance of a new work ("Three Impromptus" by Lowell Liebermann). He also won the most prize money. His performance of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 (Op. 26) with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and James Conlon in the final round was described by Scott Cantrell of The Dallas Morning News as "kinetically dramatic, almost savage in some of its more forceful passages but lovingly caressed in its more lyric moments",

Pompa-Baldi has appeared at such venues as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Cleveland's Severance Hall, Paris' Salle Pleyel, Milan's Sala Verdi, Shanghai's Grand Theatre, and Boston's Symphony Hall. He has appeared as soloist with the Houston Symphony, Berliner Symphoniker, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Boston Pops, and Colorado Symphony, among many other orchestras. Among the conductors he has worked with are Theodore Kuchar, Hans Graf, James Conlon, Louis Lane, Keith Lockhart, Krzysztof Urbański, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya.

After moving to the United States, Pompa-Baldi served on the piano faculty of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music; he now serves as distinguished professor of piano and head of the piano department at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He also serves as honorary guest professor of the China Conservatory of Music, as well as honorary visiting professor of the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, Wenzhou University and Guizhou Normal University.

Discography Pompa-Baldi has recorded more than 30 CDs for Centaur Records, the Steinway & Sons label, and Brilliant Classics. For Centaur Records, he recorded the entire piano output of Edvard Grieg, the Josef Rheinberger piano sonatas Opp. 47, 99. and 135, a Schumann album, a Rachmaninoff album, and the complete Hummel piano sonatas. He also recorded a Brahms CD for Azica, and is featured on a Harmonia Mundi CD of live performances from the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. For the Steinway label, he recorded a CD of songs by Francis Poulenc, which he arranged, as well as Edith Piaf, elaborated for piano solo by the Italian composer Roberto Piana. A second Steinway label CD, titled "Napoli", features classic Neapolitan songs in the form of Improvisations elaborated by Roberto Piana. Additionally, for the Steinway label, Pompa-Baldi recorded three piano sonatas of Mozart. Pompa-Baldi is also one of the most prolific recording artists for the Steinway & Sons Spirio catalogue.

Personal life Pompa-Baldi lives with his wife, pianist Emanuela Friscioni, and their daughter in Cleveland.