CALOGERO DI LIBERTO Grand prize winner of the 2001 Concurso International Compositores de Espana in Madrid, Italian concert pianist Calogero Di Liberto continues to win praise for his warm musicianship, technical prowess at the piano, and wide range of repertoire.

His numerous prizes also include first prize at the Concorso Europeo di Ostuni in 1991, first prize and Grand Prix winner at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1995, top prize at the Concorso Internazionale F. Chopin in Racconigi, Italy (May 2000), and the “Vincenzo Bellini” special prize at the 32 nd V. Bellini International Piano Competition in Caltanissetta, Italy in 2001. He was also a scholarship winner of the Franz Liszt Academy of Budapest and the Sommer Akademie in Salzburg.

Mr. Di Liberto’s career has taken him across Europe and throughout the United States. He has given recitals in France, Germany and Austria at the Grosses Saal of the Mozarteum, as well as in Milan, Taranto, and Palermo in his native Italy. His concert tour of Spain included appearances in Sevilla, Ciudad Real, Segovia, and Don Benito with the highlight being his final performance in Madrid.

In the US, Mr. Di Liberto has performed several times for the Fryderyk Chopin Society of Texas, and under their auspices he issued his first CD of Chopin’s works (1995). He has played in San Antonio for the Musical Bridges Around the World program, and in 2000 performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #4 in San Angelo, TX. In 1996 he made his New York debut in Carnegie Hall (Weill Hall). Most recently, in 2004, he was selected to be Vice President of the Houston chapter of the American Liszt Society, for whom he gave an all-Liszt command recital. In September 2004 Mr. Di Liberto returned to Carnegie Hall (Weill Hall) for a recital featuring a program of paraphrases and transcriptions from Italian and French operas, including the world premiere of his own Fantasy on Pietro Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana.” In May of 2005 he will record in New York a commercial CD presenting this same repertoire.

Calogero Di Liberto’s repertoire includes not only standard recital fare, but also an eclectic mix of compositions from his native Italy, including works by Respighi and Busoni. A devoted fan of opera, Mr. Di Liberto has also improvised piano fantasies based on any of the standard opera repertoire. He has also performed piano concerti of Mozart, Beethoven, and Liszt to great acclaim.

Calogero Di Liberto was born in 1973 in Agrigento, Italy. He graduated from the Bellini Music Conservatory in Palermo in the class of Giulio Arena, and continued his studies with Aquiles Delle Vigne and Bruno Canino. He received a Master of Music degree from the Rotterdam Music Conservatory in 1999. In 2002 he completed his Artist Diploma program at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where he studied with Tamas Ungar and Harold Martina. Mr. Di Liberto is currently pursuing doctoral studies in Piano Performance at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston with Jon Kimura Parker.