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About Pianist James Tocco

Italian-American virtuoso James Tocco enjoys international renown as a recitalist, orchestral soloist, chamber musician and pedagogue. Beyond his vast repertoire of virtually the entire standard piano literature, he is widely regarded as among the foremost interpreters of American masterworks, including Bernstein's Age of Anxiety, which he recently recorded with Leonard Slatkin and the BBC London Symphony and performed with Marin Alsop and the New World Symphony; and the Corigliano Piano Concerto, of which he is acknowledged the definitive interpreter by the Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer. He has performed this spectacular work to great acclaim with the Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, San Diego, Kansas City and Phoenix Symphonies and with the Louisville Orchestra – with which he recorded the work – as well as with Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center. The pianist's recent seasons included his Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra debut, performing the MacDowell Concerto and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, both conducted by Leonard Slatkin, and his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev. An especially accomplished recitalist, Mr. Tocco has been widely praised for his interpretations of Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt, as well as 20th-century composers, and he among the very few pianists to regularly program the keyboard works of Handel.

Born of Italian parents in Detroit, Mr. Tocco's love of music – especially opera – began in early childhood. At six he started studying piano and at twelve he made his orchestral debut, performing Beethoven's Second Concerto. Among the countless awards that followed were a scholarship to the Salzburg Mozarteum and a French government grant to study with Magda Tagliaferro in Paris. His musical education was completed with Claudio Arrau in New York. International prominence came with his First Prize victory in the International ARD Competition in Munich, followed by a major triumph as a last-minute replacement for Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli as guest soloist for the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto at the Vienna Festival. In the years since then he has performed literally around the world: throughout North and South America, Europe, the former Soviet Union, Japan, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East. His orchestral engagements include the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras; Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Munich Philharmonics; London, Houston, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, New World, National, and NHK (Japan) Symphonies. Conductors with whom he has collaborated include Marin Alsop, David Atherton, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Andrew Litton, Yoav Talmi, Robert Shaw, Yoel Levi, Zdenek Macal, Gerard Schwarz, Raymond Leppard, David Zinman, Lukas Foss, Georges Prêtre, Neeme Järvi, James DePreist, Hugh Wolff, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Leonard Slatkin, John Nelson, Christoph Eschenbach and Christoph von Dohnányi. Festival invitations include Salzburg, Vienna, Lockenhaus, Holland, Schleswig-Holstein, Dubrovnik, Wolf Trap, the Hollywood Bowl, Blossom, Ravinia, New York's "Mostly Mozart," Spoleto (USA) and Santa Fe.

Mr. Tocco's voluminous discography reflects his varied tastes and astonishing versatility: the world-premiere recording of Bernstein's complete solo piano music, an all-Copland disc including the first recording of the solo piano version of the Suite from Rodeo; the complete Chopin Préludes, the complete piano music of Charles Tomlinson Griffes; Erwin Schulhof's Cinq Etudes de Jazz; Bach-Liszt Organ Transcriptions; and the four piano sonatas of Edward MacDowell. Recently issued to unanimous acclaim is Mr. Tocco’s recording of Corigliano’s Etude-Fantasy on Sony Classical. And his newest releases are a Gasparo disc called American Piano - premiere performances of works by American composers Lukas Foss, Joel Hoffman, Bernhard Heiden and John Downey - and several disks of chamber works by the 19th-Century German romantic composer Eduard Franck.

In addition to his rigorous international performing itinerary, Mr. Tocco is Eminent Scholar/Artist-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and Professor of Piano at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Mr. Tocco is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Updated: SEPTEMBER 2010