Costantino Catena, pianist

Costantino Catena is a pianist rare in his generation. He does not hold back in his use of the expression pedal, shining above all in the art of singing on the keyboard with an inventiveness of phrasing that demonstrates his exquisite musical intelligence.
Carlo Vitali, Amadeus

After graduating from the "G. Martucci" Salerno State Conservatoire with top marks and cum laude under the guidance of Luigi DAscoli, Costantino Catena continued and completed his piano studies with Konstantin Bogino, Bruno Mezzena and Boris Bechterev. Encounters with Aldo Ciccolini, Michele Campanella and Joaquin Achucarro have also been important landmarks in his musical education.

A prize-winners at numerous national and international piano competitions he has performed in Europe, in Australia, in U.S.A. in Russia and in Japan at the invitation of important musical and cultural associations and institutes including the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna, the Kennedy Center and Georgetown University in Washington, Amici del Teatro Regio di Torino, Amici della Musica di Trapani, Dante Alighieri Society, Ravello International Festival, Alghero International Festival, Liszt Institute of Bologna, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, Kusatsu International Festival and Ohrid Summer Festival. Costantino Catena has participated in the complete performance of the Liszt’s piano music, on the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth, organized by the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia together at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana and Liszt Society, at the Auditorium Parco della Musica (Rome) in 2011.

Active in the field of chamber music, Costantino Catena has collaborated with leading artists such as Alessandro Carbonare, Michele Lomuto, Franco Maggio Ormezowski, Gabriele Geminiani, Sashko Gawriloff, Sabrina-Vivian Hopker, Claudio Casadei, Lynne Dawson, Maja Bogdanovich, Claudio Brizi, Quartetto Savinio. He has recorded for Phoenix Classics Nuova Era International labels, and for Camerata Tokyo has recorded Franz Liszts complete works for violin and piano, as well a double CD featuring all of his piano works dedicated to Venezia and Napoli, a blu-ray dedicated to Debussy and Schumann and other solo CDs.

Costantino Catena is actively involved in teaching at several Academies and Universities including The Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań, Tromsø University College, Music College of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, Babes-Bloyai University of Cluj-Napoca and Yasar University of Izmir, and teaches regularly in Avellino, where he chairs the piano professorship in the "D. Cimarosa" State Conservatoire. Alongside his performing activities he graduated in Philosophy at the Salerno University and in Psychology at Naples University, with a particular focus on issues concerning the management of psychological and physiological aspects during musical performance.

Costantino Catena is the Official Yamaha Piano Artist.

In Nuits d’été à Pausilippe and Soirées Musicales de Rossini Costantino Catena strikes the perfect balance of sentiment and relaxed charm in readings that could scarcely be more idiomatic.
In Carnaval de Venise Catena revels in the droll humor and far-fetched technical demands of Liszt’s setting, creating a listening experience that’s great fun.
In Venezia e Napoli, the supplement to Book 2 of the Années de pèlerinage, Catena exhibits his natural, unaffected feeling toward the music’s popular source materials. The extended trio of the famous Tarantella is almost ethereal in its beauty. This triptych, recorded so frequently over the past couple of years, is here as deliciously atmospheric and echt-Italian as one could wish.
Patrick Rucker, Fanfare Magazine

In Schumann Piano Concerto Costantino Catena gives insights into some original phrasing, particularly in his articulation of the main themes, wich attest to a mature pianist capable of reconciling the balance between structural and emotional emphasis.
Santi Calabrò, Amadeus