SIMONE RUGANI

PIANO

Born in Lucca in 1993, Simone Rugani began studying the piano at the age of six under the guidance of Prof. Nadia Lencioni at the Sinfonia Music School in Lucca, obtaining his diploma as a private candidate at the age of 17 with top marks from the “Pietro Mascagni” Conservatory in Livorno.

From a very young age, he performed as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles in numerous prestigious seasons both in Italy and abroad. Notable appearances include the REBUS Festival 2014 (Teatro dal Verme, Milan), Lunigiana International Music Festival, Francigena Melody Road Festival 2012—where he also served as the artistic coordinator of the “Talents” section—Teatro del Giglio in Lucca, Amici della Musica of Padua, Amici della Musica of Florence, and Amici della Musica of Perugia, Accademia degli Sfaccendati (where he performed as a soloist with an orchestra in Mozart’s Concerto KV 488), Accademia Filarmonica Romana, MusicaInsieme Bologna, BolognaFestival, Asiago Festival, Classiche Forme 2023, Società dei Concerti di Milano, Divertimento Ensemble, Oratorio del Gonfalone in Rome, Royal College of Music in Stockholm, the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh, and Fränkische Musiktage Alzenau (Germany).

As a soloist, he has won first prize at the International Piano Competition “Città di Castiglion Fiorentino” (2011), the absolute first prize at the 26th International Piano Competition “Città di Albenga,” where he was invited to perform the opening concert of the following edition, and first prize at the National Competition “Nuova Coppa Pianisti d’Italia” (4th edition) in Osimo.

In August 2012, he was selected as a scholarship recipient to participate in the “Aurora Chamber Music” advanced courses in Trollhättan (Sweden) and performed in a trio with maestros Urban Agnas and Jonas Bylund during the evening concerts of the Aurora Star Music Festival. He has also attended masterclasses with renowned pianists including Fabrizio Datteri, Maria Grazia Bellocchio, Aquiles delle Vigne, Mats Widlund, Pavel Gililov, Boris Berman, Pier Narciso Masi, Marco Zuccarini, Avedis Kouyoumdjian, and Peter Nagy.

A highly active chamber musician, since 2013 he has performed in a duo with violinist Daniele Sabatini, refining his artistry under the guidance of Laura Pietrocini and Marco Fiorentini. Together, they have won numerous awards, including second prize (with first not awarded) at the Stasys Vainiūnas International Chamber Music Competition 2018—one of Europe’s most prestigious chamber music competitions—second prize (with first not awarded) at the Cilea Competition in Palmi (RC), and a special prize for the best performance of a piece by Gottfried von Einem at the ISA 2018, organized by the MDW University in Vienna, where they performed at the ORF Funkhaus in Vienna. They also won first prizes at the CIMP Competitions in Pesaro and Magliano Sabina in 2018.

The duo has also been awarded the “Campus delle Arti” prize multiple times, as well as the “Boris Christoff” Prize in its 27th edition (2020). In December 2017, they made their debut in New York with two concerts at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò of New York University and the Italian Cultural Institute. In 2019, they returned to New York for another concert at the Casa Italiana and the Lithuanian Consulate, where they gave the New York premiere of Vainiūnas’ Sonata. During the 2020 lockdown, the duo won online competitions organized by the Divertimento Ensemble and the Lunigiana International Music Festival. More recently, Rugani performed as a soloist in Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra, conducted by Sieva Borzak.

He also regularly performs in a duo with Francesco Gatti (principal flutist of the Noord Nederlands Orkest), Matteo Rocchi (violist of the Quartetto Guadagnini), and Kevin Spagnolo (first prize winner of the Geneva International Competition), with whom he won the “Fortissimissimo Festival” competition for two consecutive years, organized by the Amici della Musica of Florence.

He has also frequently collaborated in chamber music programs with distinguished soloists such as Filippo Gorini, Simon Zhu, Erica Piccotti, Tommaso Lonquich, Amalia Hall, Claudio Pasceri, and Duccio Beluffi. At the International Academy of Imola, he serves as an accompanist pianist for the cello classes of Maestros Enrico Bronzi and Luca Magariello and has played the same role in masterclasses led by Paolo Taballione, Luciano Tristaino, Claudio Montafia, Michele Marasco, and Alexander Chaushian.

He has recorded works by Debussy and Stravinsky for Musikstrasse at the Trafalgar studio in Rome, a prize won at the “Campus delle Arti” in 2013, as well as a CD featuring the first recordings of works by composer Cesare Galeotti. In 2018, he contributed to the complete recording of Sergei Prokofiev’s piano sonatas for Velut Luna, performing Sonata No. 8. He has also participated in radio broadcasts on Radio Vaticana (in a trio with Adriano Ricci and Luca Ranieri) and Rai Radio3 (for “Radio 3 Suite” and live on “Piazza Verdi”).

He obtained his second-level master’s degree in piano with top marks in 2019 from the Conservatory of Padua under the guidance of Maestro Konstantin Bogino, and in 2021, he earned a second-level academic diploma in chamber music with honors and a Mention ad Honorem from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome.

He is currently enrolled in the Advanced Chamber Music program at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, under the guidance of Maestro Ivan Rabaglia.

In addition to his musical career, he holds a degree in mathematics from the University of Pisa, with a thesis on upsampling audio files. He is a tenured professor of Chamber Music at the Conservatory of Campobasso.