About

Concert pianist, Professor for piano performance at Conservatorio di musica "Benedetto Marcello" in Venice.

Studies and debut

Igor Cognolato is an Italian pianist of Croatian and Hungarian descent, born in Treviso in 1965. He started his musical training with Ida Longhino at the age of five; at age nineteen he obtained his Diploma magna cum laude in piano performance at Conservatorio “Benedetto Marcello” in Venice (piano) under Vincenzo Pertile (a former student by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli), and three years later in choir conducting at Conservatorio “Felice Evaristo dall’Abaco” in Verona.

He pursued his musical education at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater Hannover, Germany, with the Concert Examination Diploma of Music in piano performance under Brazilian pianist Roberto Szidon (former student by Felicja Blumental, Arthur Rubinstein and Claudio Arrau). Igor Cognolato’s debut followed with NDR Symphony Orchestra with Franz Liszt’s Concerto No. 2 live recorded and broadcasted.

Among his teachers for composition and piano are Ugo Amendola, Michele Marvulli, Dario De Rosa (Trio di Trieste’s pianist), Aldo Ciccolini and Paul Badura-Skoda.

Igor Cognolato and Badura-Skoda

Performances and recordings

Igor Cognolato has performed through all over Western Europe and the USA, with resounding success: soloist with numerous orchestras (Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Sofia chamber Orchestra, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Orchestra del Gran Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Tallinn chamber Orchestra and others), he recorded for RAI, RAI Eurovision, NDR Radio, and for Norwegian National Radio, as well as CD for Simax, Blue Serge and Rivoalto or other labels from France and Italy.

Since 2009 he regularly performs together with Athenaeum Berlin Philharmonic String Quartet: they took part in Aix-en-Provence chamber music festival and their performance of Schumann Pianoquintet op.44 was broadcasted live for ARTE TV. His activity as chamber music partner takes him playing with dozens of musicians (string and woodwind players or singers) from all over Europe.

Wagner and Beethoven

President and artistic director since 1995 of cultural association “Amici della musica di Treviso” and, since 2017, Vice President of Richard Wagner Verband in Venice. In 2013 he performed as lead actor in the documentary film “Richard Wagner, diario della sinfonia ritrovata” by Gianni Di Capua, presented in the same year at “70° International Mostra del cinema di Venezia” as well as at Bayreuther Festspiele, and at the Library of Congress in Washington DC (USA).

Starting from 2019 Igor Cognolato contributes the board of Beethoven Sources, a catalogue raisonné of Beethoven's autographs, first editions and other original sources.

Teaching

Igor Cognolato is currently Professor of Piano Performance at Conservatorio “Benedetto Marcello” in Venice (Italy), after a period of eleven years spent as piano Professor at University of music “Giuseppe Tartini” in Trieste (Italy), in addition to a period of several years (from 1997 to 2001) spent as Professor at Italian Universities of music in Cagliari “Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina” and Rovigo “Francesco Venezze”.

He has been invited to give master classes at many European universities, including but not limited to Kunstuniversität Graz, Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität, Universität Mozarteum Salzburg (Austria), Hochschule für Musik und Theater Lübeck, Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater Dresden (Germany), Trinity Laban College in London (UK), Conservatorio superior de musica Salvator Seguì de Castellò (Spain), Estonian Academy of music and theater Tallin (EST), Rumanian national Academy of Bucarest (Rumania). He is regularly invited to hold masterclasses also by private institutions such as Carithian Music Academy in Austria.

Igor Cognolato

The latest

In May 2016 he gave a successful debut at the Berliner Philharmonie with Milan Svoboda’s Concerto Grosso, for the Berliner Philharmonic official concert series.

Because of his activity as a Professor and as a musician he has been honored in November 2019 with a prize by Korea Award, promoted by ICDI from Seoul, affiliated to South Korean cultural ministry, and from CWAP, the international committee for culture and peace in the world.

Contact Me

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I'd love to hear from you.

info@igorcognolato.com