Nino P Cocchiarella brings a fresh appraoch and new fire to two monsters in the piano repertoire.

16 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Traditional, CLASSICAL: New Age



Details:
Nino P. Cocchiarella began his performing career at the age of fifteen, with his own composition, âRhapsody for Piano and Orchestra.â He has since played across the world as a soloist, being acclaimed by the New York Times as âparticularly impressive.â His performances are characterized by an endless palette of colors and an undeniable mastery of the dynamic structure in music. The Bloomington Herarld Times calls his performances âpowerful and agile... with flair and assurance...â

Mr. Cocchiarella is in high demand as a pianist, having already given over 50 recitals this year . This summerâs touring brought him to Korea for two months, and the fall will bring him across the United States, including two weeks in Hawaii. His dates include major performance centers, such as the Honolulu Academy of the Arts, but also extend to his own entrepreneurial concert productions in regional locations, as well as many private house concerts, which are quickly becoming a trend.

Before his concerts, Mr. Cocchiarella often talks about and explains the music he is going to perform. His casual manner and insightful explanations have made his talks a popular part of his concerts, and have earned him invititations to give several guest lectures at universities, including the University of Evansville and the University of Busan in South Korea. In addition to lecturing, Mr. Cocchiarella has also been an adjudicator in piano competitions, most recently this springâs Indiana Music Teachersâ Association competition.

This season also marks the launch of Mr. Cocchiarellaâs popular âPictures Project,â a piano recital which synthesizes portions of the program with Mr. Cocchiarellaâs own nature photography, projected live over the course of the music. The photos are taken to match the different moods in each section of a work, and they illustrate and enhance the musicâs moods and stimulate the audienceâs imaginations. In the original âPictures Project,â Mr. Cocchiarella played Mussorgskyâs âPictures at an Exhibition.â This fall he continues the series with Brahmsâs âHandel Variationsâ in his nation-wide tour.

Mr. Cocchiarella has released three CD recordings through Mr. Owl Productions. These CDs include works by Handel, Schubert, and Chopin, Mussorgsky, Schumann, and Brahms and are available in stores nation-wide and on cdbaby.com, iTunes, and 92 other online music vendors worldwide. A review of Mr. Cocchiarellaâs Handel/Schubert/Chopin CD on cdbaby.com calls his Schubert Wanderer Fantasy âthe most powerful performance of the Wanderer Fantasy Iâve ever heard.â

Mr. Cocchiarellaâs competition prizes include the Best Solo Performance Award in last years Corpus Christi International Competition, the First Prize in the Indianapolis Concerto Competition, top prizes in the NFAA (National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts) competition and in the MTNA (Music Teachersâ National Association) competition, and a recent first prize award in the National Society of Arts and Letters Piano Competition in Bloomington, Indiana. In 2002, he won the first prize in Indiana Universityâs Concerto Competition playing Straussâs Burleske for Piano and Orchestra. Cocchiarella is also an award-winning composer, with a second prize nationally in the MTNA Composition Competition.

Mr. Cocchiarella graduated from Indiana University in 2004. He was a student of Menahem Pressler and Edward Auer.