Pianists

Davide Cabassi Pianist

The Van Cliburn Piano Competition Finalist Davide Cabassi made his orchestral debut at the age of thirteen with the RAI Radio Symphony Orchestra in Milan. He has also collaborated with the Munich Philharmonic, the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen and the Russian Chamber Philharmonic, as well as with several Italian orchestras, working with such conductors as Gustav Kuhn, James Conlon, Asher Fisch, and Vladimir Delman, among others. In recital, he has been engaged by most of the prominent musical associations of his native country, including Serate Musicali and Societa dei Concerti in Milan and Festival Pianistico in Brescia and Bergamo. Mr. Cabassi has played concerts in Austria, China, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, Russia, Scandinavia and Switzerland, highlighted by appearances in Salzburg’s Mozarteum, the Gasteig in Munich, and Rachmaninoff Hall in Moscow. He was featured prominently in the film documentary about the Twelfth Van Cliburn Piano Competition, ”In the Heart of Music,” which was aired by PBS stations in all major U.S. markets.

Appreciated for the warmth and sincerity he brings to his performances, Mr. Cabassi has been popular with U.S. presenters and audiences since he was declared a winner of the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June 2005. In 2006, Mr. Cabassi was selected by the Association of Performing Arts Managers (APAM) to showcase at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall at its annual conference in New York. This conference attracts over 4000 industry professionals. During the 2006-2007 concert season, he made his debut with the Amarillo, Hartford, Imperial (FL), and Mid-Texas symphony orchestras, and was on tour with the Manchester Music Festival Orchestra. He was engaged for recitals and educational programs by Purdue University in West Lafayette (IN); the University of Wyoming in Laramie; and the Portland Piano International Festival in Oregon.

In 2007-2008, he performed in fifteen US states and was featured with the Illinois and Florida West Coast Symphony Orchestras. International engagements took him to Austria, Finland, Germany, Poland and France, where he appeared in recital at the Louvre in Paris. In Italy, Mr. Cabassi received high acclaim as orchestral soloist and recitalist at the chamber music festival “Festival col Legno” in Lucca (May/June 2008) and made his solo debut at the Alba Music Festival. He was the featured artist in a documentary of Italy’s TV CLASSICA which was aired nationwide in spring of 2008. In the same year, Mr. Cabassi recorded also for Col Legno concerti of Brahms and Schumann under Maestro Kuhn.

In 2008/2009, Mr. Cabassi appeared again in the United States as orchestral soloist and recitalist in November 2008 and in March/April 2009 where he was re-invited to appear with the Amarillo Symphony in Texas. In Europe he has been the orchestral soloist with the Orchestra Radio Swizzera Italiana, Lugano, the Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano, Orchestra Pomeriggi Musicali, Milano, Orchestra Verdi, Milano, Tiroler Festspiel Orchester, Romantic Orchestra, Paris, Orchestra Filarmonica die Udine, and Orchestra Monteverdi, Bolzano He also returned to Lucca’s Festival Col-Legno. In the season of 2009/2010, Davide Cabassi was heard in recital and concert in the US again in October/November of 2009 as well as in spring of 2010, also in October of 2010 and in April of 2011. In spring of 2010, Davide was also invited for return engagements with the Orchestra Pomeriggi Musicali, Milan appearing in several concerts as orchestral soloist under the direction of Marco Angius.

Davide Cabassi’s debut CD for Sony-BMG records, Dancing with the Orchestra, for which he won the Italian Critics Award for “best debut recording of the season,” was released worldwide in 2006. It featured works by Bartók, De Falla, Ravel, and Stravinsky. In 2008, Mr. Cabassi recorded Brahms’ Concerti and the Schumann Concerto with the Haydn Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Gustav Kuhn for Col Legno label in Italy. In the United States, he recorded Pictures and Escaping on Allegro label, released in December of 2008.

After graduating from Milan’s Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, where he was a student of Professor Ponti, Mr. Cabassi spent several years as one of the few select students at the International Piano Foundation in Cadenabbia, Italy, taking master classes with Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, Rosalyn Tureck and William Grant Naboré. He is a faculty member of the Verdi Conservatory in Milan and of the Monteverdi Conservatory in Bozen. Davide Cabassi is also an Artist-in-Residence at the Col-Legno-Festival in Lucca.