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The Italian pianist, Alessandro Deljavan, was born to an Italian mother and Persian father and was fortunate to be urged along by both parents. His mother, he says, had hoped for a musician child even during pregnancy. He began learning to play piano before the age of 2 and debuted in concert at age 3. At the age of 4, he started piano with a young Pescara teacher, Valentina Chiola, and a Polish-Belgian composer, conductor and pianist Piiotr Lachert. He dedicated only two hours a day to practicing, quite short sessions compared to most gifted children. Drom 1998 to 2003, he studied at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, under the guidance of Riccardo Risaliti. From 2003 to 2005, he studied with E. Belli at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica G. B. Pergolesi in Fermo. He also earned his post-graduate degree at the Music University “G. Braga” in Teramo in 2007. From 2005 to 2013, he was among the select young artists attending the International Piano Academy at Lake Como, Italy under the tutelage of artistic director William Grant Naboré. In addition, he has taken part in courses at the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Festival della Nazioni at Città di Castello, and the Ottorino Respighi Foundation in Venice. His teachers include Valentina Chiola, Piotr Lachert, Ricardo Risaliti, Enrico Belli, Eugenio Bagnoli, Lazar Berman, William Grant Naboré, Dmitri Bashkirov, Laurent Boullet, Fou Ts'ong, Dominique Merlet, John Perry, Menahem Pressler, Claude Frank, Richard Goode, and Andreas Staier.
Throughout the 1990s, while still a youngster, Deljavan played in every major city in Italy and in a number of cities around the world. He competed in numerous national and international competitions, often capturing first prize, including the 1er Prix, 1er Nommé de la discipline piano classique, degré virtuosité in Paris, Rueil-Malmaison. In 2005, he won 2nd Prize at the 'Johann Nepomuk Hummel International Competition' in Bratislava; took the 5th Prize at the 'Gina Bachauer' Junior Artists Competition in Salt Lake City (the first Italian in the history of the competition); and was Semifinalist at Clara Haskil International Piano Competition,. Other prices include the John Giordano Jury chairman Discretionary Award ($4.000) at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Fort Worth, Texas (and was confirmed by the critics as: 'The most accomplished and charismatic musicians of his generation'), and the 2nd prize at the 2010 Isang Yun Competition, Tongyeong, South Korea. In 2013 he was the unique competitor to return to the Cliburn as a competitor; his exclusion from the final round had been criticized by the critics; he was awarded with the Raymond E. Buck Jury Discretionary Award ($4,000). After few days from his exclusion he voluntarily retired from the Cleveland International Piano Competition by which he was selected as the only Italian pianist.
Alessandro Deljavan has performed extensively across Europe (Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, UK, Greece, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Russia), Asia (India, Israel), and North (USA) and South America (Argentina, Colombia). He has performed with orchestras such as the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestra Sinfonica Leopolis, Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento on tour in Italy and Slovakia, Israel Camerata Orchestra Jerusalem, Wu Han Philharmonic Orchestra, and Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, among others. Festival appearances include the Festival International Piano Classique de Biarritz, Festival Chopin à Paris, Piano Intime Series, Glafsfjordens musikfestival, Bologna Festival, Il Festival Piano Master, Franz Liszt Festival, Festival Città di Morbegno, Bogotà International Piano Festival, and Tippet Rise. Chamber music partners have included the Takács, Sine Nomine, and Brentano Quartets.
An avid chamber musician, Alessandro Deljavan has performed with the Sine Nomine Quartet, the Takács Quartet, and the Orchestra Sinfonica Verdi, with which he also conducted. He has toured extensively with violinist Daniela Cammarano, with whom he has recorded several albums for the Aevea, Brilliant Classics, and Onclassical labels, including the complete L.v. Beethoven's piano and violin sonatas.
Alessandro Deljavan now considers J.S. Bach and Schubert his main interests although he is working on L.v. Beethoven and the final opus of Robert Schumann. His J.S. Bach owes much to the late Rosalyn Tureck who was a friend of Naboré’s and had been associated with the Como school in the years just before her death. “Her sense of the phrase in Bach is something I cannot describe in words,” Alessandro said. He regrets never meeting her “except many times listening to her recordings.”
Alessandro Deljavan has an extensive discography of over 40 albums with the Stradivarius, Brilliant Classics, Onclassical, Aevea, Naxos, Tactus, and Piano Classics labels. He has recorded the works of Charles-Valentin Alkan, Johannes Brahms, Ferruccio Busoni, Cramer, Anton Rubinstein, Satie, Schubert, and Robert Schumann. Recent projects include recordings the Cramer's etudes produced by OnClassical for the Naxos label; complete Frédéric Chopin waltzes, etudes, and mazurkas; complete piano/string works of Taneyev; and the complete violin sonatas of Grieg. His most recent recording of the complete Grieg Lyric Pieces was streamed over 200,000 times in its first month on Spotify. Additional releases in 2019 include an all-Franz Liszt album of the complete Mephisto Waltzes and the Sonata in B Minor, as well as a recording of the J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations (). He was also featured alongside Evgeny Kissin, Antonio Pappano, and Charles Rosen in the film Franz Liszt: The Pilgrimage Years, produced and broadcast by Italian RAI TV. He has appeared also in the film Virtuosity (The Cliburn/PBS), and numerous live broadcasts on European radio. The live webcasts from the Cliburn Competitions (2009 and 2013) were seen by over one million viewers in 155 countries.
Alessandro Deljavan was a Theo Lieven Scholar at the Conservatory of Lugano, and is currently Professor of piano at the U. Giordano Conservatory of Music in Foggia, Italy. |
