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A laureate of the Oporto International Competition (Portugal) and the Premio Venezia (Italy), Italian-born pianist Enrico Elisi has garnered international recognition through performances across four continents. Critics have praised his “mastery of elegance, refinement, and fantasy” (La Nueva España) and “remarkable sensitivity, imagination, and polish” (The Baltimore Sun). Leon Fleisher hailed him as “a highly gifted, serious, and accomplished musician [whose] playing is characterized by a keen awareness of the elements of music that set the great artist apart from the pedestrian performer.” Echoing this sentiment, Lazar Berman observed, “Elisi’s playing reveals a refined sense of style and a noble personality.”

He has given recitals throughout Europe at venues such as the Bemberg Museum in Toulouse (France), Centro del Carmen in Valencia (Spain), the Dante Society in Bonn, Wolfsburg Castle, and the Bach-Saal at Kiel Universität (Germany), as well as the Cyril and Methodius Foundation in Piestany (Slovakia). In his native Italy, he has appeared at historic venues including La Fenice Theatre (Venice), the Medici-owned Palazzo Vecchio and the Sala del Buonumore (Florence), the Pavarotti-Freni Opera House (Modena), the Bibiena Theatre and Palazzo Guerreri-Gonzaga (Mantua), the Sala dei Giganti (Padua), the Sala degli Ostaggi (Crema), the Teatro Comunale, Archaeological Museum, and Sala Bossi in Bologna, and the Sant’Anna dei Lombardi Church (Naples).

He has performed extensively across Asia, with recitals in Japan, South Korea (IBK Hall, Seoul), China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Singapore. In the Americas, his engagements include the Centro Cultural de España in Lima (Peru), the Banff Centre, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Toronto (both in Canada). In the United States, he has appeared at the National Gallery of Art, the Italian Embassy in Washington, DC, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, the Chopin Society in San Francisco, and series such as Great Pianists at Stetson, Kent Keyboard, and the Coastal Carolina Steinway Series; he has also been featured at the New York Public and Morgan Libraries and as a guest recitalist at state conferences of the Florida, Missouri, and Oklahoma Music Teachers Associations. 

Elisi has performed as a soloist with the China Conservatory Symphony, Florence Symphony, Orchestra Classica de Porto (Portugal), Jakarta Sinfonietta (Indonesia), Bay Atlantic Symphony, Greeley Philharmonic, Williamsport Symphony, Pennsylvania Centre, Central Texas Philharmonic, and the TCU and Round Rock Symphony Orchestras. He has collaborated with conductors such as Manuel Nawri, Jed Gaylin, Gerardo Edelstein, Iswargia Sudarno, and Germán Gutiérrez. Concerto highlights also include two-piano concertos by Poulenc, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, performed in collaboration with Mengyang Pan, John Owings, and Anton Nel.

An avid chamber musician, Elisi has collaborated with the New Orford String Quartet, principal players from the Baltimore, Chicago, and American Symphony Orchestras, and We Soloists in Seoul. His partnerships include violinists Joan Kwuon, Charles Castleman, Lorenz Gamma, Qian Zhou, and Federico Agostini; violist Juan-Miguel Hernández; and cellists Ben Hong and Sung-Won Yang.

Elisi’s performances have been broadcast internationally on Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, WPSU, UNC, KCNV Nevada Public Radio, KGCS, WCLV Cleveland, and Radio Montebeni (Italy). Via Classica Radio (Germany) featured him in a two-hour recital and interview broadcast from Hamburg.

A committed advocate for contemporary music, Elisi has premiered solo and chamber works by Kye Ryung Park and Paul Chihara, who dedicated a composition to him. He premiered Two Images by Chihara, available on Albany Records, and performed works by Berio, Sciarrino, and Fedele at the University of Toronto New Music Festival, in the presence of Salvatore Sciarrino. His forthcoming releases include Angelus by Peruvian composer J. V. Grossmann, reflecting an ongoing engagement with new repertoire and living composers.

Elisi co-founded the Elisi-Pan Piano Duo with RCM-based pianist and professor Mengyang Pan, a collaborative partnership devoted exclusively to repertoire for two pianos and piano four hands. The Duo has been featured across Europe, Asia, and North America, appearing at universities and major venues in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Highlights include performances at Baylor University, Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University, and Weatherford College, as well as Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in Beijing with the China Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Manuel Nawri at Guoyintang Concert Hall, presented as part of Retrospect: The French Chapter of Turn-of-the-Century Music.

Additional appearances include the Texas State University Guest Recital Series and Texas State International Piano Festival, Steinway Gallery (Austin), the Clayes Performing Arts Center at California State University, Fullerton, the Conero International Piano Festival (Italy), Cheltenham Ladies’ College (UK), Steinway Hall (Shun Yi), the Cavendish Concert Hall (Beijing), the Namhae International Festival and Academy (South Korea), the Goethehaus (Jakarta), and the Spring x Tsing Hua Arts Festival at National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan). Frequently invited to residencies at universities and conservatories worldwide, the Duo’s educational initiatives support pedagogical innovation and cross-cultural exchange.

A frequent guest at international festivals, Elisi has performed and taught at Art of the Piano, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Texas State, Bay PianoFest, RPPF, and the Chautauqua Institution in the United States; the Vancouver Piano Sessions in Canada; VIPA Valencia in Spain; Todi Music Masters, the Conero International Piano Festival, and the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy; Borromeo in Switzerland; The Thinking Pianist in England; and the Ameri-China Foundation and Sichuan International Piano Festival in China.

An experienced adjudicator, Elisi has served on the juries of numerous international competitions, including the Peabody Yale Gordon, Weatherford, Iowa, Baylor University’s Semper Pro Musica, SMU and UNT Concerto, and Dallas International competitions in the United States; the Stepping Stone and Glenn Gould School Concerto competitions in Canada; and the Pacific Rim Competition in Australia and New Zealand. He has also served as jury chair for Italy’s Nuova Coppa Pianisti in Osimo and the Palma d’Oro Competition.

Elisi holds the Harold D. and Imogene Herndon Endowed Professorship of Music in Piano at Texas Christian University. He has previously served on the faculties of the University of Toronto—where he received a teaching award for excellence and innovation—as well as the Eastman School of Music, Penn State University, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

He has also held distinguished visiting appointments as a visiting professor at Hanyang University and as a Leading Scholar at Ewha Womans University in Korea, and was affiliated with the China Zhejiang Art School, with frequent return engagements as a visiting teacher. His students have won prizes, received grants, and hold teaching positions internationally.

Elisi has taught masterclasses at institutions across the United States, Canada, Peru, Denmark, Italy, Turkey, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, and Korea, and has been a featured concert artist at state conferences of the Florida, Missouri, and Oklahoma Music Teachers Associations. He has conducted interactive workshops, including Effective Memorization Strategies for Pianists (Mental Practice), at the Pinerolo Accademia di Musica and the Piacenza Conservatory in Italy, and at Trinity Laban, the Royal College of Music, and the Royal Northern College of Music in England. As a Yellow Barn Festival Artist-in-Residence, he performed an all-Bach recital and presented lectures on ornamentation and articulation in selected Baroque dance movements.

Elisi received his musical training at the Conservatories of Bologna and Florence and continued his studies at the International Piano Academy of Imola and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. At Peabody, he studied with Leon Fleisher and served as his teaching assistant. He also received formative mentorship from Lazar Berman, Boris Petrushansky, Alexander Lonquich, Franco Scala, and Giuseppe Fricelli, and benefited from Boris Slutsky’s guidance. His chamber music training was further shaped at the Taos and Ravinia Festivals, where he worked with Robert McDonald, Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, and Claude Frank.

Elisi became a United States citizen in 2012 and is a Steinway Artist.

He invites his audience to interact with him and “like” his page at www.facebook.com/enricoelisipiano.