Centro Studi Vitale

Writing in Sydney's Italian language newspaper La Fiamma, Paolo Totaro hailed Monica Leone's Australian debut describing her as "an anti-star pianist, in whose playing everything tends to be subservient to the music and whose powers of concentration result in an extraordinary intensity of effect."   And he added, "Here is the  greatest compliment one can give to a musician performing Beethoven's Opus 101, that she has maintained to the fullest, the integrity and unity of the piece.  For such a young pianist to play like this is a sign that the gods are smiling upon her and she can look forward to a great future."

 

Born in Campobasso, Monica Leone began her piano studies under the guidance of her mother, Carmen Mazzarino, and then continued with Massimo Bertucci at the St. Pietro a Maiella Conservatorium in Naples.  Thus she is heir to  the pianistic tradition of the school of Vincenzo Vitale, the most important teacher in Italy during the second half of the 20th century.  She completed her studies with Michele Campanella at the Ravello School of Piano and at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena where she was awarded her “Diploma d’Onore”.  She performed in such prestigious concert halls as the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Verona's  Sala Maffeiana in the Teatro Filarmonico, the Sala G. Verdi at the Convervatorium of Milan; at institutions like the National Accademy of Santa Cecilia, the Friends of Music in Florence, the Settimana Musicale in Siena, Bocconi University in Milan, the Scarlatti Association in Naples, the Micat in Vertice in Siena (on which occasion her Goldberg Variations were "an hour and a half of playing which exalted the artistic qualities of the young performer and made her into a pianist of considerable standing." 

 

In addition to Italy, Monica Leone has played in Spain, Romania, Hungary, China and Australia.  In the coming months she will have her debut in France, playing Bach's Goldberg Variations.  Other debuts are planned with the Orchestra della Toscana in Florence, and at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.

Her repertoire with orchestra, apart from all the Bach concertos, includes works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Saint-Saens (whose Concert op. 22 she recorded for R.A.I.) and Poulenc.  She dedicates herself with great enthusiasm to chamber music in various ensembles.  After the CD of the Goldberg Variations, she continued with the complete keyboard works of J.S. Bach.  The recording company NICCOLO' will publish the second volume of the French Suites in 2004.

 

Since 1998 Monica Leone has been teaching advanced courses at Ravello.

Leonardo Pinzauti, the influential musicologist and music critic, wrote that Monica Leone's interpretation of  the Goldberg Variations(in Florence) was "performed to great public acclaim, and is the result of great musical intelligence and perfect technical mastery."