Antonio Pompa-Baldi

Born and raised in Foggia, Italy, Antonio Pompa-Baldi first came to the U.S. in 1999 to participate in the Cleveland International Piano Competition. He won the First Prize, and, while fulfilling all the engagements that came with it, he and his wife, Italian pianist Emanuela Friscioni, decided to make Cleveland their home. A top prize winner at the 1998 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition of Paris, France, Antonio Pompa-Baldi also won a silver medal at the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, as well as the Award for the Best Performance of a New Work.

Mr. Pompa-Baldi has toured extensively in four continents, bringing his assured touch on the keyboard to some of the world’s major concert venues including Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Milan’s Sala Verdi, Naples’ Teatro Diana, New York’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and Paris’ Salle Cortot, Salle Gaveau, Salle Pleyel, Theatre des Champs-Elysees and Théâtre du Châtelet.

Mr. Pompa-Baldi’s recent engagements include a triumphant debut in Beijing, China. After a recital in the Forbidden City Concert Hall, and Master Classes at the China National Conservatory, he was named Honorary Guest Professor of that Institution; highly acclaimed recitals in London, England, and Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and a performance with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in Kiev. Mr. Pompa-Baldi also made orchestral and solo debuts at Carnegie Hall, respectively in Isaac Stern Auditorium and Zankel Hall, as well as appearances with the Houston Symphony, Berliner Symphoniker (in Tokyo, Japan), Colorado Symphony, North Carolina, Peoria, and Duluth Symphony Orchestras, Rochester Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia (New Zealand), Kansas City Symphony, Toledo Symphony, Cleveland Pops, National Orchestra of Santo Domingo, Symphony of the Americas (Ft. Lauderdale), and Canton Symphony. He also performed recitals in cities such as Seoul, Paris (Chopin Festival), Chicago, Ravinia, Houston (Texas Music Festival), Portland (OR), Sacramento, Fort Worth (Cliburn Series), Salt Lake City (Assembly Hall), and Duszniki Zdroj, Poland (Chopin Festival).

Antonio Pompa-Baldi has collaborated with leading conductors including Hans Graf, James Conlon, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Keith Lockhart, Christopher Seaman, Fabio Mechetti, Daniel Hege, Louis Lane, Pascal Rophe’, Grant Llewellyn, and Stefan Sanderling, appearing with the Boston Pops, the Pacific Symphony, the Orchestre Philarmonique de Metz (France), the Orchestre National de Paris-Radio France, as well as the Symphony Orchestras of Fort Worth, Syracuse, Columbus, Charleston, Southwest Florida, and Spokane. Other notable recital engagements include Bologna, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Hartford, Miami and San Juan (Portorico).