Michele Montemurro (1982) studied at “Giuseppe Verdi” State Conservatory of Music in Milan (Italy) where he graduated in piano with full honours and special mention in 2002 under Prof. Paolo Bordoni. Moreover, he studied organ and organ composition with Prof. Luigi Molfino and graduated in 2000 at the young age of seventeen.
From 2002 to 2005 he additionally broadened his piano skills at International Piano Academy “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola (Italy) under Prof. Franco Scala. In 2004 Michele Montemurro continued his artistic studies at the University of Music Cologne (Germany) with Prof. Dr. h.c. Arbo Valdma, again, being awarded full grades for piano in 2005. Finally, he completed his studies with the postgraduate recital (“Konzertexamen”) in October 2007.
On request of several organizations Michele Montemurro played many concerts in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, Estonia, Croatia, Japan, South Korea and he performed with many orchestras including the chamber orchestra “Region Marche”, the “Orchestra Accademia i Filarmonici” Verona, the “G. Paisiello” orchestra Taranto, the Pärnu chamber orchestra (Estland), the Italian Orchestra “Antonio Vivaldi”, and the German Südwestfalen Landesorchester NRW philharmonics.
He has won numerous prizes at national as well as international competitions (e.g. 1st prize 8° International Competition “A. Bocchi” at Milan Conservatory, 1st prize 1° European Competition “G. Mosconi” at Parma Conservatory (2002), 1st prize 3° International Competition “Comune di Cassina de’ Pecchi” Milano (2002), 2nd prize 6° European Competition “L. Gante” Pordenone 2003, 2nd prize 1° National Competition “Schumann Prize” Lamporecchio (2004), 1st prize 17° National Competition “Terzo Musica” Terzo, 1st prize 4° International Competition “The Zagreb Award 2006“ Croatia, 2nd prize 45° European Competition “A. Speranza” Taranto).
In addition he attended various masterclasses held by Aldo Ciccolini, Andrea Lucchesini and Alexis Weissenberg.
Recently, live piano recordings of Michele Montemurro were broadcast at the Italian “Radio Classica”.
In January 2010 his piano debut album, produced by TUDOR Recording Inc., was released.
He is founding member of the Italian cultural association “Pianissimo” and artistic director of the “Festival Pianistico Città di Morbegno” (Italy).
Furthermore, Michele Montemurro is often requested to be part of jury committees of national and international music competitions.
Besides his concert activities, he is occupied as piano teacher in Italy and Switzerland.
Future activities include an Italian tour with the Piano Concert No. 1 by Shostakovich and the recording of a second piano CD with works of the contemporary Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin.