Biography
Paolo was born in a small village overlooking a lake in northern Italy, a place that briefly stepped into the global spotlight in 2016 through Christo and Jean-Claude’s Floating Piers. Music entered his life early, guided by his first piano teacher—his grandfather Angelo—who passed down a simple but enduring credo: patience, passion, and perseverance. Those three principles would quietly underpin every step of Paolo’s artistic journey.
As a teenager, Paolo left his village for nearby Brescia to attend high school and the conservatoire. Unconventional and deeply devoted to classical music, he spent his days immersed in the piano repertoire, his portable CD player filled with Rachmaninov, Chopin, and Beethoven. Yet the deeper he explored the piano’s black-and-white landscape, the stronger his urge became to move beyond interpretation and simply play. With a basic recorder, he began improvising—discovering the thrill of creating music in the moment.
That curiosity found direction when composer Mauro Montalbetti encountered Paolo’s early experiments. Recognizing potential, Montalbetti invited him to study composition, opening the door to orchestral thinking, notation, and contemporary music—the music of living composers. Paolo dove headfirst into this world, spending countless hours in conservatoire libraries, exploring overlooked scores and absorbing radically different sound worlds. Composition reshaped his identity, not as a departure from the piano, but as an expansion of it.
A pivotal step followed when Paolo was encouraged to move to Milan, where he began working with contemporary music pianist Andrea Rebaudengo. There, his piano skills became a vehicle for new music, leading to collaborations with professional ensembles and performances at major festivals. Alongside chamber music studies, Paolo balanced intense practice, frequent travel between cities, concerts, and the exuberance of early-twenties life—fuelled by curiosity and momentum.
At Montalbetti’s urging, Paolo eventually took a decisive leap abroad, enrolling in the Conservatorium van Amsterdam’s Master in Piano with New Music specialisation. What was meant to be a couple of years became a long-term home. His Amsterdam debut took place in the Concertgebouw, and his years in the Netherlands have since been shaped by collaboration, cultural exchange, and an ever-growing network of artists from around the world. Looking back, Paolo sees a path shaped by mentors, movement, and discovery—guided still by his grandfather’s quiet wisdom, resonating through every note he plays.
