Bruno Canino

Bruno Canino is both a composer and pianist specializing in chamber music and contemporary works for solo piano. He began piano studies in his native Naples with Vincenzo Vitale. He then got his diplomas in both piano and composition at the Conservatory of Milan under  Enzo Calace and Bruno Bettinelli. He won prizes in the international piano competitions at Bolzano (1956, 1958) and Darmstadt (1960). Canino has toured Europe, Japan, Australia, and the United States both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. He has collaborated with many prominent string players, such as Itzhak Perlman, Lynn Harrell, Salvatore Accardo, Viktoria Mullova, and Uto Ughi. Since 1953, he has performed in a piano duo with Antonio Ballista and is a member of the Trio di Milano (with the violinist Mariana Sirbu and cellist Rocco Filippini). Numerous composers have dedicated works to him, including Berio, Anzaghi, Donatoni, Bussotti, Kagel, Rihm, Xenakis, and Liebermann. Canino's recordings include Bach's Goldberg Variations; Mendelssohn's compositions for cello and piano (with Lynn Harrell); works by Prokofiev, Ravel, and Stravinsky (with Viktoria Mullova for a disc that was awarded the Edison prize); the complete works of Alfredo Casella; Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (with Andras Schiff and the Amadinda Ensemble); and the first compact disc of the complete piano works by Debussy. Canino has taught at the conservatories of Milan and Berne, gives piano and chamber music master classes throughout Europe, and presents a triennial course for advanced piano studies in Seveso, Italy. He is music director of the Biennale di Venezia and the author of the book Vademecum for a Chamber Pianist (Passigli Editions, 1997). His is also the composer of solo and chamber works for piano.

Giuseppe Carannante

Giuseppe Carannante after his Clarinet Diploma at S. Pietro a Majella Naples Conservatory under the guidance of M° S. Natale, he was a student of M° G. Garbarino at Accademia Chigiana in Siena where he was awarded with scholarships and a "Diploma di Merito". He played with the Orchestra of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, and the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana di Fiesole. He's also graduated in "Musica Corale e Direzione di Coro", in "Strumentazione per Banda", and "Direzione d'Orchestra per l'avviamento al teatro lirico" with M° P. Bellugi. He has conducted some of the most important Wind Orchestras in Italy. He also conducts at Bacau and Arad National Philarmonic, Craiova "Elena Teodorini", Kharkov and Ivano Frankivsk Theater, Moldau National Broadcast Orchestra, the Camerata Romanica, and Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Recentely, he conducted Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Teatro Maghiaro in Cluj (Romania).

Keith Bowen

Keith Bowen, clarinet, has qualified in musicology since retiring from his scientific career, obtaining an MA in Music (with Distinction) at the Open University (UK). He specialized in classical-period performance practice and in the history of the bass clarinet in A, winning a University prize and two international awards for his thesis. He is an active chamber music and orchestral performer on clarinet, basset horn and bass clarinet, currently with the Spires Philharmonic Orchestra and Ensemble in Coventry, UK, a regional professional-amateur orchestra. Keith is also President of Kammermusik Workshops based in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA, which runs woodwind chamber music workshops for amateur adult players in Santa Fe and Oxford, England, in which he frequently coaches and directs the large woodwind ensembles, often with his own arrangements. He has studied clarinet with Lesley Schatzberger (UK), Lori Lovato (New Mexico Symphony) and Forest Aten (Dallas Opera). 

David Yang

Recent recipient of an artist fellowship from the Independence Foundation awarded to a small number of exceptional artists in the region, David Yang has been described as "a conduit for music."  David has been heard throughout North America and Europe in collaboration with members of the Borromeo, Brentano, Cassatt, Lark, Miro, Muir, Pro Arte and Tokyo String Quartets and Apple Hill Chamber Players, Trio Solisti, and Cavatina and Eroica Piano Trios. As an active advocate of new music he has premiered and commissioned dozens of works in the last few years. He is currently Artistic Director of the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival and Director of Chamber Music at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also Music Director of the children's storytelling and music troupe Auricolae.

Aldo de Vero

Born and raised in Italy, Aldo de Vero studied piano at the S. Pietro a Majella Conservatory, at the Accademia Chigiana, and with renowned pianist Bruno Canino. He is a dedicated advocate of contemporary music and in particular of American Composers. He has performed many works by American composers in his solo recitals and with the Appalachian Ensemble including music by John Cage, George Crumb, Morton Feldman, Henry Cowell, Ernest Bloch, Samuel Barber and a rewarding first performance in Italy of Three Quarter Tone Pieces" by Charles Ives for the 1994 G7 summit in Naples. His performances often include informative commentary on the composers, their pieces and their place in musical history.

As director and conductor of the Coro Polifonico "S.Leonardo" di Procida, he has released a compact disc recording entitled "Fenesta che lucive" (PoloSud) of his own transcriptions of Neapolitan classic songs sung by the choir accompanied by non-traditional instruments.

Although focusing on his career as a pianist and chamber musician with worldwide performances, Aldo de Vero is also founding member of Key Largo (www.associazionekeylargo.it), an organization that produces musical events and chamber music workshops such as the engaging Ischia Chamber Music Festival (www.ischiafestival.it).