Album Notes

24-year-old pianist Nino P. Cocchiarella is quickly earning a reputation as one of the most unique and exciting artists in his generation. “A pianist on a roll,” according to the Evansville Courier and Press, he thrills audiences with over 100 concerts a year, in performances that the New York Times calls "particularly impressive." The Bloomington Herald Times describes his artistry as "powerful and agile... with flair and assurance." This season's touring brings him to Hawaii, Vermont, Texas, Indiana, New York, and South Korea, with engagements that include major performance venues, such as the Honolulu Academy of the Arts and GloVil Arts Hall in Korea, as well as his own entrepreneurial concert series projects and many private events. Nino is also in demand as a teacher and lecturer at several universities, with recent speaking and masterclass engagements at the University of Evansville, Brigham Young University, and Busan University. He is currently a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Evansville. Nino has produced three internationally distributed CD recordings through Mr. Owl Productions. His discography includes works by Handel, Schubert, Chopin, Mussorgsky, Schumann, and Brahms. In a review of his Mussorgsky/Schumann CD, the International Pictures at an Exhibition Association writes "His approach to 'Pictures' is quite his own... I can find no faults in this beautiful interpretation." CDBaby.com calls his Schubert Wanderer Fantasy “the most powerful performance of the Wanderer Fantasy I’ve ever heard.” Last year Nino launched his “Pictures Project,” a piano recital that adds another dimension to the solo concert experience by synthesizing portions of the program with his own nature photography. Nino carefully designs and plans each show to illustrate and enhance the different moods as they change through the piece, as well as to reveal an insight into his unique musical interpretations. The original “Pictures Project” was inspired by Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Nino has won many competition prizes, including the Best Solo Performance Award in the Corpus Christi International Competition, and top prizes in the Music Teachers’ National Association piano competition, the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts music competition, the National Society of Arts and Letters Competition, the Indianapolis Concerto Competition, and the IU Concerto Competition. He graduated from Indiana University in 2004 as a student of Menahem Pressler and Edward Auer.