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Mauro Filippo Zappalà
Catania-born Sicilian Mauro Filippo Zappalà has been playing the piano since the age of 4. In 2011, he began his training as a pianist at the Conservatorio »Vincenzo Bellini« in Catania with Gabriella Cosentino and Cristina Zago and completed it in 2016 with a Master of Arts degree with Giulia Gangi. This was followed by a stay abroad in Krakow at the Akademia Muzyczna im. Krzysztofa Pendereckiego w Krakowie with Gajusz Kęska and Lech Napierała, as well as studies in Lied accompaniment at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Charles Spencer and Markus Hadulla. Master classes he attended include Helmut Deutsch, Hartmut Höll, Maciej Pikuslki, Carlos Cebro, Homero Francesch (who gave him a scholarship for the summer course »Lenk im Simmenthal« in Switzerland in 2014), Federico Gianello, Paul Badura-Skoda and Violetta Egorova.
Mauro Filippo Zappalà participated as a soloist in various national and international competitions with success (Palermo, Siracusa, Comiso, among others). In 2017 he received the »Giovani Eccellenze Sicliane« prize of the Rotary Catania Etna Centenario and the »Premio Simona Savino«, in 2018 in the master class »Liedkunst im Schloss vor Husum« in Germany the »Theodor Storm Klavierpreis« as best Lied accompanist, in 2021 the »20. Nordfriesischer Liedpreis« with the baritone Stefan Jovanović as well as the 1st prize at the »International Artsong Competition OPUS 2021« with the soprano Alicja Ciesielczuk and in 2022 the 2nd prize at the 13th International Competition for Liedkunst Stuttgart of the International Hugo Wolf Academy together with the bass-baritone Alexander Grassauer.
As a soloist, with orchestras, in chamber music ensembles and above all as a Lied accompanist, Mauro Filippo Zappalà has performed at venues including. in the Brahms Hall, the Glass Hall and the Bösendorfer Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, in the Schubert Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus, in London's Wigmore Hall, in the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, in the Bösendorfer Hall in the Mozarthaus Vienna, in the Teatro Bellini in Adrano, at the Castello Ursino in Catania, at the Villa Confalonieri in Merate, at the Sala Florianka in Krakow, at the Amphithéâtre Quinet of the Sorbonne University in Paris, as well as at festivals such as Hidalgo in Munich, the Trecastagni International Music Festival and the first Wiener Neustadt Singfest.