Dino Ciani

Who was Dino Ciani?

Dino Ciani was an Italian pianist.

Ciani was born in Fiume and studied piano with Martha Del Vecchio in Genoa. He obtained his diploma at the Conservatory in Rome at the age of 14 and later, from 1958 to 1962, attended the advanced courses of Alfred Cortot, whom he greatly revered, in Paris, Lausanne and Siena. Cortot described Ciani in most enthusiastic terms: "miraculously gifted ... one of the most remarkable examples of the rarest talents one could hope to find".

Ciani's career begun when he won second prize at the Liszt-Bartók Competition in Budapest in 1961. The venues in which he performed included Salle Pleyel, Carnegie Hall and Chicago Philharmonic, Kennedy Center. He made his debut at Teatro alla Scala under the baton of Claudio Abbado with Beethoven's fourth piano concerto in 1968. With Abbado he also performed Prokofiev's fifth Piano Concerto in 1968 at RAI Auditorium in Rome and Mozart's D-minor Concerto at Salzburger Mozarteum. Ciani also played with the young Riccardo Muti Beethoven's Choral Fantasia at La Scala and the 2nd Piano Concerto by Bartók at Milan RAI.

His repertoire was broad and diverse for a pianist of his age.