Mario Totaro

Mario Totaro graduated in piano from the Conservatorio "G. Rossini" in Pesaro with top marks and honours and in composition from the Conservatorio "G. Verdi" in Milan with top marks. A pupil of Franco Scala for piano and Mario Garuti for composition, he initially devoted himself mainly to piano, perfecting his skills at the "Mozarteum" in Salzburg with Carlo Zecchi and in Imola ("Incontri col Maestro") with Gyorgy Sandor, Alexander Lonquich, Aldo Ciccolini, Nikita Magaloff and Bruno Canino. At the age of nineteen he obtained his first teaching post at the Conservatory of Pesaro, where he still teaches. He has won numerous national and international piano competitions ("Città di Stresa", "E. Porrino" in Cagliari, "Città di Como", "Città di Gaeta", "Città di Albenga", "A.M.A. Calabria" in Lamezia Terme etc.), two "Special Jury Prizes" and a scholarship as the best student in Jörg Demus' class at the International Piano Festival "From Bach to Bartók". He has performed extensively in concerts throughout Italy and abroad, also proposing programmes based on improvisation and on the "contamination" of musical genres. In 1992 he founded the Trio Diaghilev (two pianos and percussion), a group selected by Piero Rattalino and Roberto Hazon for "exceptional merits", with which he has performed, at home and abroad, numerous arrangements of some of the greatest musical masterpieces of the 20th century and his original compositions in prestigious concert seasons ("Rossini Opera Festival" and "Ente Concerti" in Pesaro, "Istituzione Universitaria dei Concerti" and "Cidim - Musica Duemila" in Rome, "Sagra Musicale Malatestiana" in Rimini, "Associazione A. Scarlatti" of Naples, "Società Filarmonica" of Trento, "Autunno Musicale" of Como etc.) as well as in important radio programmes. In 1995 he was invited, as soloist, to represent Italy at the International Festival "Europäische Klaviertage" in Iffeldorf (München), alongside Lars Vogt and other famous concert performers, with a recital broadcast live on the Bavarian Radio. He has carried out an intense teaching activity, holding courses of instrumental improvement and musical analysis (alone and in collaboration with renowned teachers, including Annibale Rebaudengo) based on original and innovative formulas, aimed at deepening the relationship between the brain, the central nervous system and movements aimed at musical performance. Some of his works have won awards in international competitions ("Ennio Porrino" - Cagliari) and have been broadcast several times during RAI radio productions ("Radiotre Suite", "Il brivido della classica", from the Turin Music Fair) and on RadioClassica. He has received commissions from important artistic institutions ("Rossini Opera Festival", "Feste Musicali di Bologna", "Sagra Musicale Malatestiana", "Accademia Pianistica Incontri col Maestro" in Imola, "Ente Concerti" in Pesaro, "Rassegna Lirica Torelliana", "Centro Astor Piazzolla" etc.). Since 2006 he has directed the "Laboratorio di musica del '900 e contemporanea" at the Conservatory of Pesaro, a structure that, alongside the study of masterpieces of the last century, aims to stimulate new musical projects and promote the music of the latest generations. Today, his activity as a performer is mainly devoted to the performance of his own music.