Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda performs at a piano concert at the Italian Cultural Institute of the Embassy of Italy in Beijing on November 3. Photo: Courtesy of the Italian Cultural Institute of the Embassy of Italy in Beijing

In melodious music, the Italian Cultural Institute of the Embassy of Italy in Beijing staged a piano concert on November 3. Titled "Italian Pianism - at the Rise of Modernity," the concert featured Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda, one of today's most acclaimed and versatile Italian pianists on the international scene. 

This is not the first time for the artist to perform in China. In May 2018, Prosseda was one of the pianists in the one-month-long "Meet in Beijing" Arts Festival, offering the Chinese audience something unique. 

In June 2017, a 53-finger robot named. "Teotronica" played the piano with Prosseda at a concert in Tianjin. 

Prosseda has long pursued an artistic and musicological exploration of Italian pianism - a path that has recently led to the establishment of Italy's first PhD program in Italian Piano Music at the "Francesco Venezze" Conservatory in Rovigo.

Prosseda's China tour opened with a series of masterclasses and lectures devoted to Italian piano music, jointly held with his colleagues and PhD students from the Rovigo Conservatory studying at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in late October.

He is also one of the five renowned Italian pianists and teachers for two days of masterclasses, lectures, and piano recitals, offering Chinese audiences and students a musical journey through the history and sensibility of Italian piano playing at the great Italian piano school at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

On October 30 and 31, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing hosted a series of events "Italian Piano Music - The Art and Technique of Italian Piano Music," organized in collaboration with the Francesco Venezze Conservatory of Rovigo.

While Italian opera is renewed worldwide, Italian piano music remains far less known and performed. Yet it was in Italy that the piano was invented, and Italian musicians played a crucial role not only in the early development of piano music, but also in the major compositional and performative transformations that shaped 20th-century pianism.