Adriano Cirillo was born in Bari, where he attended the “Niccolò Piccinni” Conservatory, studying piano, composition, organ, and harpsichord.Even though he had been awarded a professorship in the secondary school, he decided to follow the advice of his mentor Nino Rota and since 1975 he focused on teaching the Main Piano class at the N.Piccinni Conservatory in Bari.
He served as vicar manager at Monopoly Conservatory and was appointed as inspector at many private music schools.His artistic activity has always been quite intense. He attended many master classes both in Italy and abroad, often thanks to scholarships offered by the Foreign Affairs Minister, and performed as soloist or in chamber music consorts that he founded and led, including Antica e Nuova Musica, Musicamera80, Piccola Camerata Leo, and – above all – Trio di Bari, which operates at national and international level, plays and records for RAI and broadcast companies abroad. Among the many recordings for RAI it is worth mentioning Pianotrio by E. Granados, Pianotrio by C. Debussy RAI Pianotrio by J. Turina Radio Vaticana, and G.F.Malipiero’s Triple Concert with the Bari Symphonic Orchestra. He also served in panels at many national and international competitions, a demonstration of the prestige he has reached in his performing and teaching activity.The most significant moments in his artistic career are surely the many contests he won, among which it’s worth mentioning the 1st prize at Martucci (Capua) and the 1st prize at R.N.G.C. (Rome)
His work as a composer has been appreciated by both musical experts and the public: the Hydrogenos ballet (Petruzzelli Theater, Bari), Variazioni sopra un tema di Paganini for guitar (Belgium R. I.), A la maniere de Poulenc for clarinet and piano (Valle d’Itria Festival), Filastrocche for voice and piano based on Gianni Rodari’s text (Regio Teather, Parma). Baccanale for piano (Regio Theater, Torino) and scene music for L’Orfeo (J.Cocteau), I Diari (Bertoli), Qui comincia la sventura (S.Tofano), and many others.
Adriano Cirillo has always been interested in re-discovering of little-known composers and in editing and publishing of unedited manuscripts.
His composition and edit works are published by UT Orpheus (Bologna), Carish (Milano), Barben (Ancona), H. H. (London) and Schott (Mainz)
He currently serves in the artistic committee at the International Choral Competition C. A. Seghizzi (Gorizia) and teaches Main Piano class at Gerolamo Frescobaldi Conservatory (Ferrara).
Luigi Di Ilio was born in Abruzzo and started studying music at the age of 4. He learned from Lucia Passaglia, a former student of Benedetti Michelangeli, at the Luisa D’Annunzio Conservatory in Pescara, graduating with the highest honors. He continued his studies for the piano with Guido Agosti and for chamber music with Riccardo Brengola at the Chigiana Music Academy in Siena, where he got a prestigious Diploma of Honor. In 1980, he made his début with Donato Renzetti (G. Cantelli Award) at the Verona Philharmonic Theater, performing the Concert in D minor op.40 by F. Mendelssohn. In 1981, he won the selection for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Chigiana Academy, recovering the tradition of the concert for piano and orchestra after 25 years. Moreover, he won important national awards, among which: the Martucci, the Rendano, the Cata Monti, the Lorenzi (a duo for two pianos), and the Conservatory Review (two pianos, with Ermindo Polidori) convened by the La Scala Theater in Milan. Together with the violinist Fabio Biondi, Di Ilio recorded two CDs for the label OPUS 111, containing the work of Gian Francesco Malipiero, the complete Sonatas by Robert Schumann and the Three Romances for violin and piano by Clara Wieck. He cooperated with the violinist Alessandro Perpich, with whom he had also carried out the complete Sonatas by L. van Beethoven, and with the mezzo-soprano Simona Mango, performing refined and unusual programs. He has recently started to cooperate with the violinist Christian Joseph Saccon, having had an important concert at Saint John’s Smith Square, a prestigious English concert institution in the heart of London, presenting the sonata La Tempesta by Niccolò Paganini in world première. Besides, Di Ilio is currently a piano professor at the G. Frescobaldi Conservatory in Ferrara.
Anthony Tam, Pianist, Pedagogue, Clinician holds the Fellowship Diploma in Piano Performance from the National College of Music, London and the Fellowship Diploma in Piano Teaching from the Victoria College of Music, London. At the same time, he is also the holder of the piano performance diploma from the Australian Music Examination Board and a piano performance diploma from the University of West London. He is appointed as a member of the Academical Board of the National College of Music London and the first non-British to be selected to join as a member in the College’s history of over 120 years. He is also the first Chinese to be appointed as a music examiner for both the National College of Music and the Victoria College of Music. In 2012, he was further appointed as a senior music examiner for the National College of Msuic, London and will be responsible for further administration of the College including the naming of examiners. . On top of being as a music examiner, he is appointed by the National College of Music to be the piano duet syllabus coordinator and from 2014, he is also responsible for coordinating and re-writing the piano syllabus.In 2015, he is appointed as the Chief Examiner of The Music Educationist Board (Malaysia) and in 2017, he is asked to act as the Chief Examiner of the Trinity College of Performing Arts (Malaysia). He is the Director of International Studies of the Canada-based Ultimate Music Theory. This organisation is on the way to issue a series of DVDs featuring “Masterclasses of Anthony Tam”. He is a member of the worldwide Liszt Society and has done much research in Liszt which earned him the title of “Lisztian” for the work done in the past years. He is also a member in good standing of the Australian Guild of Music and Speech.
Born and raised and totally trained in Hong Kong, he started to take up piano lessons when he was at the age of 5. He appeared on television one year later performing a whole programme of Beethoven. At the age of 9, he performed the Mozart Piano Concerto K459 in Singapore and at the age of 12, he appeared in a music festival in London playing a recital and a concerto. He also played before the Queen during her Royal Visit to Hong Kong, His teachers included Madam Kam-Mui Deng and Madam Wo-Ping Law who were famous piano teachers in Hong Kong. He also studied briefly with Mr. Colin Kingsley. He has played in masterclasses given by the American pianist Malcolm Frager and the great Shura Cherkassky. Under the full recommendation from Madam Law, he was taught by Cherkassky for some time..
He is a pianist, teacher and clinician and has been on the jury of some local and international competitions such as the Steinway Competition, the Euterpe Competition in which he was the President of Jury. He was a member of the jury in the competition organised by the World Piano Pedagogy Conference in Atlanta, Albert Roussel Piano Competition in Bulgaria, Nerini Piano Competition in France and so on and so forth. He has concertised in many countries including England, Canada, USA and many countries in Europe.
After obtaining the Doctorate Degee in Music Education, he has taught internationally. He is a teacher with award-winning students, he gives lectures, masterclasses and concerts for different organisers on different occasions. He has also presented teacher training programmes for music teachers worldwide. He has presented lecture demonstrations on rthe complete works of Mozart and Beethoven and is undertaking a new venture on all the works by Chopin. He was the first Hong Kong representative of the Victoria Piano Summer School. in Canada.
He is also the Hong Kong director of the Cambodia Support Group which promotes music education in Cambodia. He goes to Cambodia on a regular basis to give intensive courses to the teachers and students.
With the well-known Canadian Brahms specialist, Arne Sahlen, they are planning to release a series of recordings in the art of piano pedagogy. He is also a column writer in music education and music learning for some child-related publications. He has been interviewed widely on different occasions by the press.