PIANO 2007 : Laureate
Mariangela Vacatello is the winner of numerous prestigious international prizes such as the Internet Audience Award at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, winner of the Top of the World International Piano Competition 2009, Second Prize at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in 2005 and Second Prize at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in 1999.
Born in Naples, Italy, from a family of musicians, she made her official debut at the age of fourteen, performing Liszt's First Piano Concerto with the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra in Milan. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist at the Berlin Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall in London, Salle Cortot in Paris, Mozarteum Auditorium in Salzburg, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Z.K.M. Great Hall in Pretoria, Linder Auditorium in Johannesburg, Palacio de Festivales in Santander, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Festival in Bergamo and Brescia, Societa dei Concerti in Milan, MiTo Settembre Musica and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence.
Mariangela Vacatello has collaborated with such artists as Rocco Filippini, Gary Hoffman, Toby Hoffman, Timothy Fain, Ilya Grubert, Francesco Tamiati, Ysaye Quartet and Takacs Quartet. She has performed with the Lithuanian Symphony, Stuttgarter Philharmonics, Nordwestdeutsche Orchestra, Johannesburg Philarmonic, "Haydn" in Trento and Bolzano, Orchestra of Padova and Veneto, Zagreb Philarmonia, Pannon Philharmonic, Moldavian Radio Television, Filarmonica Marchigiana, Imperial Symphony, Rosewell Symphony, and such renowned conductors as Krystof Penderecky, Gustav Kuhn, Andris Nelsons, Gerard Korsten, Daniel Kawka, Martin Haselboeck, Michael Tabachnik, Bernard Gueller, David Itkin, Zsolt Hamar, Christopher Franklin, Anton Nanut, Donato Renzetti.
She started playing the piano at the age of four. After graduating from the "Incontri con il Maestro" International Piano Academy in Imola and the Milan Conservatory of Music, in 2008 she completed the Postgraduate Performance Course at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Prof. Christopher Elton. She participated in master classes with Lonquich, Lortie, Jasinskj, Howard, Dalberto, Lucchesini, Weissenberg, Margulis, Dorensky and Virsaladze.
Mariangela Vacatello was a recipient of the Sterndale Bennett Scholarship, the MBF (Dame Myra Hess Award), the Tillet Trust, Hattori Foundation, the Solti Foundation and the Academie musicale de Villecroze.
In 2011, Brilliant Classics released her recording of the 12 Transcendental Studies by Liszt.