Named silver medalist of the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June 2001, Italian pianist *Antonio Pompa-Baldi* was awarded two years of concert engagements and career management as well as a compact disc recording of his award-winning performances for the harmonia mundi label. He was also the recipient of the Phyllis Jones Tilley Memorial Award for the Best Performance of a New Work for his performances of Lowell Lieberman’s Three Impromptus during the semifinal round.
A top prize winner of the 1998 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition and first prize winner of the 1999 Cleveland Competition, Mr. Pompa-Baldi has played extensively throughout the United States and Europe. His tours have been highlighted by recitals in major concert venues in Bologna, Cleveland, Milan, Naples, New York, Paris, and Stuttgart. He has also played as a soloist with the Orchestre National de Paris-Radio France, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, the Southwest Florida Symphony, and the Spokane Symphony. During the 2000-2001 concert season, he performed more than 30 engagements, including a recital at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and appearances with the Charleston and Savannah Symphony Orchestras. His concert schedule for the current season is highlighted by appearances with the Auckland Philharmonia, New Zealand; Orchestre Philharmonique de Metz, France; and the Eugene, Pacific, and Tupelo Symphony Orchestras in the United States as well as recitals in Burlington, Cleveland, Flint, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and San Antonio.
Mr. Pompa-Baldi’s all-Brahms recording is available on the AZICA label. Following performances for French national television and New York’s WNYC and Boston’s WGBH radio stations, he was designated a Cultural Ambassador by rotary clubs in Foggia and Bologna, Italy. He will be featured in a documentary on the Eleventh Van Cliburn Competition, directed by Emmy-award winner Peter Rosen, which will premiere on PBS stations across the United States on October 17, 2001.
A former pupil of Aldo Ciccolini, Paul Badura-Skoda, Bruno Canino, and Jorge Demus, Mr. Pompa-Baldi attributes much of his success to his current teacher, Annamaria Pennella. He is now on the faculty as assistant professor at the Oberlin Conservatory and serves with his wife, pianist Emanuela Friscioni, as artist-in-residence at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio.
