Maria Tipo

Italian classical pianist Maria Tipo is recognized as one of the world's leading interpreters of Bach and Scarlatti. Born in Naples on December 23, 1931, she learned to play the piano from the age of four with her mother, a former pupil of Ferruccio Busoni, and went on to study with Alfredo Casella and Guido Agosti. In 1969, she won the Geneva Competition at the age of seventeen, before being awarded 3rd prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1952 by a jury that included Arthur Rubinstein, who praised her playing and launched her career in the United States with a concert at New York's Town Hall in 1955. A frequent performer in recital, she was nicknamed the "Neapolitan Horowitz", appearing in chamber music with the Amadeus Quartet and with major ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1956, her recording of Scarlatti Sonatas was a milestone, among discs devoted to Mozart or Muzio Clementi, a contemporary of Beethoven whom she revived in several volumes. Awarded a Diapason d'or for her interpretation of Bach's Goldberg Variations in 1986, Maria Tipo went on to record other works by Bach, Beethoven, Schumann and Chopin, as well as Mozart concertos with Riccardo Chailly. Parallel to her international career, the pianist has taught since the 1960s at the conservatories of Geneva and Bolzano, then in Florence in the 1980s and in Fiesole from 1987 to 2009, ceasing her stage activity in 1995 and training renowned soloists including Nelson Goerner or chairing piano competition juries in her turn. On February 10, 2025, Maria Tipo died at the age of 93.

Please enable Javascript to view this page competely.