Fabio Grasso

(* 1969 in Vercelli/Italy)

Fabio Grasso was born in 1969 in Vercelli, Italy. He gained his piano degree cum laude and honourable mention from the Conservatorium of Turin in 1986. He completed a degree in composition (majoring in new didactics) from the Conservatorium in Milan in 1994 where his teachers included Sandro Gorli, Umberto Rotondi and Guido Guida. In 1995 he was awarded a doctorate magna cum laude in classical philology from the University of Turin. He has continually developed his piano skills, at first with Marco Vincenzi, subsequently with Maria Tipo at the Conservatorium of Fiesole where he also attended composition courses by Giacomo Manzoni. In addition he has attended further piano courses including a course by Klaus Hellwig at the HDK in Berlin and a three year composition course by Franco Donatoni. In 2006 he received a new superior piano degree, doctorate of Italian conservatoriums magna cum laude with an honourable mention from the Alessandria conservatorium.
He is currently a professor at the Conservatorium in Venice.
He won the Orléans International 20th Century Piano Competition in March 1996 and has been invited to give recitals and concerts with orchestra and chamber ensembles in Paris (CNSM, Salle Gaveau, France Musique, Salle Cortot, Théâtre du Châtelet), Nice, Maastricht, Colmar (Festival 2000), Orléans, Montpellier and Erfurt (piano concertos from Mozart to Ligeti).
He has recorded works from Busoni, Rubinstein, Schumann and D. Scarlatti with the companies CD-SOLSTICE and EUTERP ACCORD which received very good reviews from critics.
He won the first prize in the Ginastera Composition Competition in Buenos Aires in 1996 with the symphonic piece Katoptroeidès. In 1999 he received the first prize in a unanimous decision by the jury at the composition competition Journées de la jeune musique de Marseille with the piece La Sérénade aux tristes sourires for 11 Instruments which also received the audience’s vote.
His highly diverse piano repertoire reaches from Bach to contemporary composers. His concert programs often contain his own pieces which he has played at the conservatorium in Milan, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Conservatorium in Orléans, the Concert Hall in Nice as well as on Radio France Montpellier and at the Festival Colmar. In addition to works for piano there are also chamber and symphonic pieces (including a piano concerto) as well as works for theatre. Some of these pieces have been performed in Milan, Florence, Rome, Marseille, Buenos Aires (Teatro Colòn) and Amsterdam (Festival Gaudeamus 1998).

Further information and listening samples can be found at: www.fabiograsso.eu