The Pocket Orchestra - Duo Soldan-Bruni (Piano 4 Hands) + Visit of Villa Bernasconi

EDOARDO BRUNI, CHRISTOPH SOLDAN (PIANO 4 HANDS)

PROGRAM

THE ARTISTS

Edoardo Bruni is a pianist and composer from Trentino. After classical studies, he graduated in Piano with top marks from the Conservatories of Trento (Maddalena Giese) and Rotterdam (Aquiles Delle Vigne), later perfecting his studies with Arnaldo Cohen, Lazar Berman, Andras Schiff, Leonid Margarius.
He graduated in Composition with top marks from the Conservatory of Trento (Armando Franceschini, Carlo Galante, Cosimo Colazzo), later perfecting his studies with Alexander Müllenbach, Azio Corghi, Luis Bacalov.
He graduated in Philosophy with top marks and honors from the University of Padua, with a thesis on “Teleonomic explanation in biology” (Prof. Giovanni Boniolo). He obtained a PhD in Musicology with full marks and special mention, in co-supervision at the Universities of Trento and Paris 4 – Sorbonne, with a thesis on “Systematics of heights” (Prof. Rossana Dalmonte – Prof. Nicolas Meeùs). He has been performing regularly for decades in Italy and Europe, as a pianist (soloist and in chamber groups, with programs of both classical music and contemporary music and jazz) and as a composer (with numerous performances of his works).
He is often invited as a member of the jury in national and international piano and composition competitions. He has taught at the Scuola Musicale Giudicarie and the Conservatories of Verona, Padua, Trento, Siena, Frosinone, Riva del Garda, Darfo-Brescia. He is currently Professor of Score Reading at the Conservatory of Vicenza.

Christoph Soldan, born in 1964, the pianist studied with Prof. Eliza Hansen and Christoph Eschenbach at the University of Music in Hamburg. The breakthrough to a lively international concert program came with a joint tour with Leonard Bernstein in the summer of 1989. The world-famous conductor said of Christoph Soldan: “I am impressed by the spiritual greatness of this young musician.” Since then, Soldan has toured numerous times with renowned orchestras throughout Europe. Piano recital tours in October 1997 to Mexico and other Central American countries. In August 1998 debuts in Salzburg and in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic and in May 1999 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In March 2000 three piano recitals in Japan. Radio and television productions for Hessischer Rundfunk, Deutschlandfunk, SWR, ORF and ZDF. The Bavarian Radio recorded his piano recital at the Munich Residenz in October 1998 and his concert at the Musiktage Bad Brückenau in May 1999. In the summer of 2002 he made further live recordings on Radio Bremen and the Bavarian Radio. From 1996 to 2006 Christoph Soldan recorded all of Mozart’s piano concertos together with the Cappella Istropolitana, the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra in Pforzheim and the Silesian Chamber Philharmonic in Katowice.
He developed the Pas de Deux for dance and piano – “Moments of a Life” – together with the dancer and choreographer Stefanie Goes. This full-length theatre piece premiered in Stuttgart in May 2000 and has been constantly changing since then. A total of 7 different versions have been created to date. Since 2000 Christoph Soldan has collaborated regularly with the writer Peter Härtling, with whom he has performed in reading concerts. In spring 2001 piano recitals in Hamburg and Berlin and concerts as part of the Prague Spring and with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra. In January 2004 the new dance piece “Something of Men and Angels” was premiered, followed by a tour of South Africa. Since 2007 he has been working as a conductor in the context of the performance of Bach and Mozart piano concertos. Currently on the program are piano recitals, reading concerts, children’s concerts, various tours with a total of 5 Mozart piano concertos, Brahms’ Piano Quintet opus 34, Schubert’s “Trout Quintet”, Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E minor, Ravel’s Concerto in G major in Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Austria.