Nazzareno Carusi (born November 9, 1968) is an Italian pianist. He studied under Alexis Weissenberg and Victor Merzhanov.
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Nazzareno Carusi was born in Celano, Abruzzo.
In 1993 he began teaching as the youngest assistant of Viktor Merzhanov. In 1994 he was one of the winners of the Italian National Competition to become Faculty member in the Italian State Conservatories of Music. Currently he teaches chamber music in the Faculty of "G. Tartini" State Conservatory of Music in Trieste.
From September 2001 Carusi has been Artist in residence at the Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.
In April 2003 he made his debut at New York's Carnegie Hall for the IAF Concert Series.
In July 2005, in Italy, he made his debut with the strings' ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Philharmonische Camerata Berlin).
In February 2006 he made his debut at Milan's Teatro La Scala, where he has played with I Solisti della Scala in a sold out chamber music recital.
Among the Institutions where he has performed are the Teatro La Scala of Milan, Carnegie Hall of New York, the Téatro Colón of Buenos Aires, the Los Angeles's Herbert Zipper Hall, the Toronto's Wenston Recital Hall and Jane Mallet Theatre, the Lugano's Music Weeks, the Jewel Box Series and the Performing Arts Series of Chicago, the Stresa's Music Weeks, the Sala Verdi in Milan, the Paris' Salle Cortot, Luxembourg's Radio Auditorium, Milan's Serate Musicali, the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, the Politeama Rossetti of Trieste, the Politeama Garibaldi of Palermo, Budapest's Radio Auditorium, Rachmaninoff Hall at Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the Sala América in Santiago (Chile), the Téatro del Libertador in Córdoba (Argentina) and the Meb Sura Hall of Ankara.
He founded I Solisti della Scala Trio with the oboist Francesco Di Rosa and the clarinetist Fabrizio Meloni, first solo parts of the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala of Milan. The ensemble tours worldwide and has been beautifully recensed by The Washington Post.
Since January 2008 he is an EMI exclusive artist.
He has recorded for RAI - Italian National Broadcasting Corporation, the Swiss-German Radio of Lucerne, the WFMT USA Classical Fine Arts Radio Station of Chicago, the CHIN International RadioTelevision of Ottawa, the CFRB Radio and the Rogers and CHIN Television of Toronto, the TeleLatino TV in Montréal, the Turkish National and the Greek National Broadcasting Corporations.
In June 2006 the Italian most important music magazine Amadeus has published his recording of the two Sonatas op. 120 for piano and clarinet by Brahms with Fabrizio Meloni.
In September 2006 the PonyCanyon Inc. in Tokyo has published his recordings of some works of Poulenc, Fauré and Montanari with the Canadian soprano Karine, included in her crossover album 'Bolero'.
In January 2007 the same magazine has released his recording of Nine Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti Live in Chicago and in 2008 will release the recording of the Franz Liszt's Malédiction for piano and orchestra with the strings' ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Philharmonische Camerata Berlin).
He has won the first Prize at the "Réncontres Internationales de Piano 1995" in Paris, at the "NFMC 1993 (duo)" in Buffalo, USA, at six National Italian Piano Competitions. He won also the Third Prize at the "Luis Sigall International Piano Competition 1992" in Viña del Mar (Chile).
He has been awarded with the Alexis Weissenberg Award 1999 in Engelberg (Switzerland) by the Bulgarian pianist himself.
The Italian Junior Chamber awarded him with the 2004 TOYP Italia Prize for the Culture.