Alessandro Ambrosoli

Alessandro Ambrosoli was born in Turin the 16th December, 1969. As a child, he took piano lessons with various teachers. Finally, at 12 years of age, he met Giorgio Costa, who was able to blend the complex personality of Alessandro Ambrosoli with his own musical knowledge and technical capacities. Under the guidance of Giorgio Costa, Alessandro Ambrosoli improved his natural talents, won prizes in a number of national and international competitions and took the decision to study Liszt, feeling that the music of the Hungarian composer was a positive challenge.

Although his teacher encouraged Alessandro to take on this challenge, he did not feel at his ease and remained unsure about his musical choices. He decided to look for a Lisztian teacher. His new teacher, Franco Lerda, introduced Alessandro into the world of virtuoso playing. Studying with Franco Lerda, Alessandro achieved more successes which spurred him on  to  undertake the study of the whole series of  Liszt’s Transcendental Concerts, without being deterred by the technical difficulties, which still deter many pianists from playing them. From the very beginning, Alessandro was a keen listener to the records of the major pianists. Marta Argerich, Artur Rubinstein and Lazar Berman were his idols and Alessandro’s musical sensibility was very much bound up with their style of playing.

His dream, as a child, was to study with one or the other great artist: better still, with both of them. Unfortunately, Rubinstein’s death in 1982 cancelled every illusion, even the chance of an encounter. Yet, in his early twenties, Alessandros’s dream came true, in part at least.  After several requests, it was his great good fortune that Lazar Berman agreed to listen to him playing. The great artist suggested that the young student be taught by his wife Valentina, whom he considered more talented as a teacher. Valentina undertook the task of further improving and shaping the young Alessandro’s playing, and she became his formal teacher, whilst Lazar Berman supervised Alessandro’s studies.