Michele Campanella

Michele Campanella (born 5 June 1947) is an Italian pianist who specialises in the music of Franz Liszt, and is also a conductor.

Campanella was born in Naples in 1947. He won the Alfredo Casella Prize at age 19, after studying with Vincenzo Vitale. This led to an international performing career, taking him to many countries (the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, China, Argentina, Brazil), regularly appearing at international music festivals such as Lucerne, Vienna, Berlin, Prague, Taormina, Turin, and Pesaro, and working with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Vernon Handley, Eliahu Inbal, Sir Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Georges Prêtre, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Thomas Schippers, Hubert Soudant, and Christian Thielemann.

He is also a regular chamber music player, and has often appeared with Salvatore Accardo, Rocco Filippini and Claudio Desderi. For his Liszt recordings, Campanella received the Grand Prix du Disque of the Franz Liszt Society in Budapest in 1976, 1977 and 1998, as well as the "Premio della critica discografica italiana" in 1980.