Jury
Paolo DIRANI
(Italy)
Paolo Dirani started musical studies at "Istituto Malerbi" in Lugo, Italy, with piano teacher Tina Rani. He got his diploma with Lidia Proietti at "G.B. Martini" Conservatory in Bologna. He then carried on his piano studies in Milano with the pianist Ilonka Deckers. He also studied with Alessandro Specchi, Riccardo Brengola, Boris Bekhterev and Alfons Kontarsky.
From 1984 to 1986 he co-operated with Severino Gazzelloni in his flute courses at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. In 1987 he won Stresa International Competition in the "Flute and Piano" section. In 1990 he founded the Duo Clavier, four hand piano duet, which recorded for the fonè label seven Donizetti sonatas and the complete works of Rossini, Busoni, Martucci, Respighi, Casella, Liviabella, Malipiero, Beethoven and Schumann.
Paolo Dirani also collaborated with the Venezuelan guitarist Alirio Diaz, the Quartetto Fonè and Ivano Marescotti. He and the Italian actor staged together the play Suoni da Favola (Songs from a Fairytales) which later became a book and a CD published by Pendragon.
For the Signoricci-fonè edition he recorded the Petites Histoires in 2008, a journey through the most meaningful French 19th centuries four hand piano music, devoted to childhood themes.
He released Il giardino incantato (The Magic Garden) and Domani… è un’altra fiaba (Tomorrow… another Fairytale), two novels inspired by fairy tales on the scores by Ravel, Fauré, Bizet, Saint-Saëns and Prokofiev.
In 2009 he performed in the play Requiem, written by Stefano Tassinari and narrated by Matteo Belli, based on a Carl Czerny’s transcription for four hand piano of Mozart’s famous mass K. 626.