Vita
FRANCESCO TROPEA (Cosenza/Italy, 1994) has been described by the press in 2024 as a “rising star in the sky of the international pianists".
After his musical studies in Italy at Cosenza’s Conservatory of Music, Fiesole School of Music and Pinerolo Music Academy, he gained his second Piano Master degree and completed the Post graduate Piano Course in Austria at the University Mozarteum Salzburg, and he obtained the CAS in Concert Improvisation in Switzerland at the CSI Lugano.
He has performed in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, at famous halls, such as the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, at international festivals, namely the Festival dei due Mondi in Spoleto, and for radios, like BNR (Bulgarian National Radio), ORF (Austrian National Radio) and SRF (Swiss National Radio). Among the most remarkable events, in 2016 he performed at Teatro Niccolini in Florence Bach Concerto for two pianos in C major BWV 1061 together with the pianist Pietro De Maria; in 2022, at Kobe College of Music, in Japan, he was Assistant of the pianist Rolf Plagge and performed in a solo and in a chamber music recital; in 2023, the TVT Televisión Tabasqueña of Mexico broadcasted an online recital with video recordings of him. In 2024 he was selected to perform in a gala concert at Carnegie Hall in New York in June 2025. Moreover, he is winner of scholarships and many prizes in international piano competitions, such as of the first prize at the “F. Mendelssohn” International Competition and of the second prize at the II Concurso Internacional de Piano “F. Chopin” of Granada in 2023.
His interest in classical piano improvisation has led him to many artistic projects, like improvising cadences in piano concertos. He also appeared in the film Beethoven X: Das KI-Projekt, in a scene in which he interprets Beethoven fantasizing in a piano improvisation duel.
He is currently registered in the Master in Piano Improvisation at the HMDK Stuttgart and is enrolled in the PhD program in Musicology at the University Mozarteum Salzburg.
In May 2024 he debuted the album Johann Sebastian Bach: Rare Piano Sonatas, released by the Swiss label "Prospero Classical."