ROBERTO PLANO

Italian native Roberto Plano performs regularly throughout North America and Europe – notably at
Lincoln Center, Sala Verdi, Salle Cortot, Wigmore Hall and the Herkulessaal. He has appeared with
orchestras all over the world, under the direction of renowned conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner,
James Conlon, Pinchas Zuckerman, Miguel Harth-Bedoya. He has been a featured recitalist at the
internationally acclaimed Newport Festival, the Portland Piano Festival, Ravinia Festival and the Gilmore
International Keyboard Festival (USA), Chopin Festival (Poland), the Bologna Festival – Great Soloists
(Italy), and many others. He played with String Quartets such as the Takacs, Cremona, St. Petersburg, Fine
Arts, Jupiter, Muir, as well as soloists such as Ilya Grubert, Pavel Berman, Jiri Barta, Enrico Bronzi, and in
duo with his wife Paola Del Negro.
Mr. Plano was the First Prize Winner at the 2001 Cleveland International Piano Competition, Prize Winner
at the Honens, Dublin, Sendai, Geza Anda and Valencia Competitions and Finalist at the 2005 Van Cliburn
and the Busoni Competitions, in addition to having won 15 First Prizes in National Competitions in Italy. In
January 2018 he won the American Prize in the solo professional division. Mr. Plano’s engaging
personality has made him a favorite guest on radio programs such as NPR’s Performance Today.
He has recorded more than 20 commercial CDs for Briliant, Sipario, Azica, Arktos, DaVinci, Concerto, being awarded five stars by several music magazines. and he recently released several World Première CDs with music by Andrea Luchesi (1741-1801). Mr. Plano gave the world premiere of two Luchesi piano concertos with the Busoni Chamber Orchestra in Trieste, Italy; the US premiere took place with the Toledo
Symphony, Stefan Sanderling conducting. Mr. Plano’s debut recording with DECCA Classics was also
recently released, featuring the “Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses” by Liszt, which have not been
recorded by Decca since the 60’s. Recent events include soloist appearances with Kremerata Baltica at the
Portogruaro International Festival in Italy, with the Royal Camerata at the Athenauem Theater in Bucarest
(Romania), and recitals and chamber music concerts at the Stellenbosh Symposium, Sudafrica, at the
Yamaha Center, Taiwan, at Vivace Vilnius Festival in Lituania, Gijon International Piano Festival in Spain
and at the Boston Athenauem in USA. He was also invited to give several concerts in Russia, including two
concerts at the Kremlin State Palace in Moscow, and a 10-concert chamber music tour in China with The
Juilliard School’s faculty Laurie Smukler and Darrett Adkins.
Mr. Plano studied at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan, the Ecole Normale “Cortot” in Paris, where he
earned the Diplôme Supérieur de Concertiste, obtaining first prize with unanimous decision and
congratulations of the Jury, and the Lake Como Academy. Mr. Plano has been described by The Chronicle
as the “Pavarotti of the Piano” for his lyricism and defined by Chicago radio commentator Paul Harvey as
the heir to Rubinstein and Horowitz. In Italy, he has appeared on the cover of the most important music
magazine, Amadeus, and has been awarded several prizes, including the Lumen Claro, awarded by the city of Varese to its most celebrated citizens. NY Times music critic Anthony Tommasini has written: “This
Italian pianist showed artistic maturity beyond his years… there was a wonderful clarity and control of
inner voices in his performances…”.
After joining in 2016 the Faculty of Boston University, in 2018 he has been appointed Associate Professor
of Piano at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. One of the most sought-after teachers in the world,
Mr. Plano also regularly teaches during the summer at Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival and at Kneisel Hall
Chamber Music Festival. Since 2023 he is Professor of Piano and Chair of School of Keyboard Studies at
the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana (Lugano, Switzerland) and International Visiting Professor of
Piano at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester (UK). Fequently invited in international juries
around the world, this season he is a member of the Jury, among others, of the Seoul International Music
Competition, the Van Cliburn Competition (Screening Jury) and the Honens International Piano
Competition (Final Jury).

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