James Tocco “Pianist Tocco is practically making a career these days of performing Corigliano’s concerto. Tocco brought out the demonic energy of the work, confidently and skillfully slashing his way through the pounding chords and careening octave passages of the foreboding opening movement. After the fleet, driving Scherzo, there was a nice balance in the weightier Adagio. Tocco colored the piano to bring out the wide-ranging harmonies and melodies of the finale, which ended with a breathtaking crash.” The Washington Post    “The blockbuster hit of the day was the Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet by Chausson. It included a stunning performance by pianist Tocco, who is the finest chamber pianist this reviewer has heard. The piano does double duty in this piece as soloist and also accompanist, and Tocco excelled equally in both roles.” The Cincinnati Enquirer   Barber Concerto: “James Tocco was a patrician, fluent and energized soloist. He sang in the lyrical second movement, impressed in the driving rhythms of the third and did what he could to make the sprawling first movement cohere.” The Los Angeles Times   Italian-American virtuoso JAMES TOCCO enjoys international renown as a recitalist, orchestral soloist, chamber musician and pedagogue. Beyond his vast repertoire of virtually the entire standard piano literature, he is widely regarded as among the foremost interpreters of American masterworks, including Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, which he recently recorded with Leonard Slatkin and the BBC London Symphony and performed with Marin Alsop and the New World Symphony; and the Corigliano Piano Concerto, of which he is acknowledged the definitive interpreter by the Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer. He has performed this spectacular work to great acclaim with the Atlanta, San Diego, Kansas City and Phoenix Symphonies and Louisville Orchestra, the latter including an acclaimed recording, a well as most recently with Andrew Litton and the Cincinnati Symphony and Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center.  European debuts include the London Philharmonia (Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto) and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (MacDowell Concerto and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue).  An especially accomplished recitalist, Mr. Tocco has been widely praised for his interpretations of Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt, as well as 20th-century composers, and he among the very few pianists to regularly program the keyboard works of Handel.  His current season begins with performances of Samuel Barber's Concerto with Leonard Slatkin conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Born of Italian parents in Detroit, Mr. Tocco’s love of music--especially opera--began in early childhood. At six he started studying piano and at twelve he made his orchestral debut, performing Beethoven’s Second Concerto. Among the countless awards that followed were a scholarship to the Salzburg Mozarteum and a French government grant to study with Magda Tagliaferro in Paris. His musical education was completed with Claudio Arrau in New York. International prominence came with his First Prize victory in the International ARD Competition in Munich, followed by a major triumph as a last-minute replacement for Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli as guest soloist for the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto at the Vienna Festival. In the years since then he has performed literally around the world: throughout North and South America, Europe, the Soviet Untion, Japan, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East. His orchestral engagements include the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras; Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Munich Philharmonics; London, Houston, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, New World, National, and NHK (Japan) Symphonies. Conductors with whom he has collaborated include Marin Alsop, David Atherton, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Andrew Litton, Yoav Talmi, Robert Shaw, Yoel Levi, Zdenek Macal, Gerard Schwarz, Raymond Leppard, David Zinman, Lukas Foss, Georges Prêtre, Neeme Järvi, James DePreist, Hugh Wolff, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Leonard Slatkin, John Nelson, Christoph Eschenbach and Christoph von Dohnányi. Festival invitations include Salzburg, Vienna, Lockenhaus, Holland, Schleswig-Holstein, Dubrovnik, Wolf Trap, the Hollywood Bowl, Blossom, Ravinia, New York’s “Mostly Mozart,” Spoleto (USA) and Santa Fe. Mr. Tocco’s voluminous discography reflects his varied tastes and astonishing versatility: the world-premiere recording of Bernstein’s complete solo piano music, an all-Copland disc including the first recording of the solo piano version of the Suite from Rodeo; the complete Chopin Préludes, the complete piano music of Charles Tomlinson Griffes; Erwin Schulhof’s Cinq Etudes de Jazz; Bach-Liszt Organ Transcriptions; and the four piano sonatas of Edward MacDowell. Recently issued to unanimous acclaim is Mr. Tocco’s recording of Corigliano’s Etude-Fantasy on Sony Classical. In addition to his rigorous international performing itinerary, Mr. Tocco is Eminent Scholar/Artist-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and Professor of Piano at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck, Germany. Mr. Tocco is also the Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.   Home