International Piano Festival “Bartolomeo Cristofori”
The Piano Festival is a tribute to the innovative genius of Bartolomeo Cristofori, born in Padua on May 4, 1655, who masterfully knew how to unite art and technology and “render on instruments the speaking of the heart, now with delicate angel’s touch, now with violent bursts of passion.” A harpsichord maker, organ builder and luthier, he was one of the most famous harpsichord makers of his time. He is considered the inventor of the “fortepiano,” the main precursor of the piano. Bartolomeo Cristofori died in Florence on January 27, 1732 in the parish grounds of the church of San Jacopo tra i Fossi, where his death certificate was drawn up, and was later buried in Santa Croce.
The 2023 edition of the Festival will retrace the thread that links Japan to Cristofori’s instrument, bringing some of the world’s most interesting Japanese pianists to Padua, Rovigo, Conegliano, Abano and Arquà, offering music by Japanese composers from the 20th century to the present and delving into the individual and highly personal paths of each of these musicians. The Festival will have for the first time an artist-in-residence, 24-year-old Mao Fujita, Silver Medalist at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition, Sony artist, internationally contested soloist. The young Japanese pianist, for the first time in Padua, will be the protagonist of concerts, insights, meetings with associations, interviews and lectures in which to discover the art of one of today’s most interesting musicians.
The festival is held under the patronage of the Consulate General of Japan in Italy.
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